The Adventures of Evelyn, David, and Lost Girls
by VinylVictory
Summary: Formerly Are You Going To Kill Me. Evelyn likes David but is perplexed by some of his strange behavior. After a date she can't remember, David and the Lost Boys return to Santa Carla and she follows. Insight into David's past. No Micheal or Star. Fic 1
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Okay. Not a lot happens in this chapter even though it is very long because I had to explain what was going on a lot. Just wait for the next one. Much more interesting. I'll have it out soon. I don't own the Lost Boys (DUH!!! If I owned them I wouldn't be here writing about them, I'd be making them come down here and…).

When Evelyn first saw David, they were at the pier in San Francisco. She was leaning on the railing watching the fog come in over Alcatraz. She heard the group before she saw them, just a ways down the pier, whooping and talking and laughing loudly, their clothes were jangling as they were ornamented with chains and such. Evelyn watched them first, just to see. It was more interesting than the fog. They couldn't see her watching because she was still wearing her sunglasses, even though it was late dusk, almost night. She thought they looked like a fun group, clad in jeans and leather. Though their clothes were less eighties and David and Marko had cut off the mullet part of their hair, they still looked like The Lost Boys. Evelyn thought they looked tough, but still more than willing to chill and have a good time. She thought they were interesting. She wished she knew them.

After watching for a time she realized who the leader figure must be: the white blond in the long coat. He didn't say much, but everything went passed him. She liked him. He had a sleekness about him, a quiet power, and however you romanticized it he was still _sexy_. She wanted to know him, wanted to test him to see if she really _did_ like him. She was debating going over there, standing next to the group then turning around and saying hey. She'd introduce herself to them all, but it'd be David who she'd really be talking to. She didn't pull that use-his-friends-to-get-to-him crap. Girls like that made her sick.

So Evelyn decided it was time the white blond leader realized who was looking at him. She whipped off her glasses, turned her head three quarters in his direction, and flicked her eyes over him. He looked at her, pausing in what he was about to say, before looking back to the one with a long mane of blond hair and continuing speaking. She turned her head to the whole group and smiled, nodding her head in acknowledgement. It was the one with the shortish curly blond hair that moved towards the leader and spoke softly to him, keeping his eyes flicking from the leader to the girl on the pier. The leader looked, nodded, and smiled and they all started walking towards her. Evelyn was hoping they would. She wouldn't mind going over there, but she wanted to make them come to her.

"Hey there," said the leader. David was leaning one arm against the pier railing near Evelyn looking right at her, grinning like he had something up his sleeve.

"What you doin' out here all alone? It's a chilly night…," said the one with the long blond hair, rubbing his arms and shaking his head making the 'brr' noise playfully. Evelyn smiled at him.

"Yeah, it's dangerous out here," said the one with the curly hair and Cheshire grin. Evelyn's smile faltered, and she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm alright," she said. She turned to face him and the whole group noticed the large Bowie knife swinging in its holster at her hip.

"It- It's not from _us_… it's just… you- you're out on the pier all alone," said Marko, eyeing the knife. Her smile came back.

"Yeah it's just, girls usually come in packs… don't even go to the crapper by themselves," said the long-haired blond.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. My name's Evelyn. Who are you guys?" asked Evelyn. She turned to David and fixed him with a look.

"David," said David, smiling and extending his black leather gloved hand.

"Marko," said the Cheshire grin boy.

"My name is Paul," said Paul, smiling at her.

Evelyn looked at the last guy, a tall man of a dark complexion, and raised an eyebrow, prompting him. "Dwayne… Dwayne is my name," he said.

"So what's happening?" Evelyn asked.

-----

David, Paul, Marko, and Dwayne were taking a break from Santa Carla for a couple weeks. All the security guards knew them and would kick them off the boardwalk on site, and if they all suddenly found themselves missing in a rush the police would say there was a cop serial murderer, and that would make it hard to hunt, hard to feed. This was helping them keep a low profile and Santa Carla wasn't that far from San Francisco.

One evening just as they woke up they went down to the pier to hang out. David felt someone looking at him, repeatedly. That meant it was probably some girl checking him out, and he knew what that meant. That meant dinner. 'Cause when girls checked out David, then they would probably go out with him, and if they went out with him, then that entailed leaving their friends and going somewhere alone with him, and then that meant it was time for David to eat, or drink, as it were. Lots of girls just wanted a fling with him, and others just wanted to tame the wild one or go along for the ride. Others wanted to taste forbidden fruit and go out with the guy that never went out with anyone, or so it seemed, as all the girls he went out with ended up going with him discreetly, and then not coming back. Others, oh the others he thought were funny. They were so naïve, the wanted David to be their _boyfriend_. Ha! Maybe take him home to meet mummy and daddy, cuddle at the movies, make out at the point, exchange gifts and flowers on Valentine's Day…ha! To think of David doing that. David does not cuddle.

When David saw the girl that must have been looking at him, he had to repress a smile, a downright grin. Tonight would be a fun fling or feed or whatever it was. She had a tight body: legs going on forever, healthy size up in the chest area… she was good, she was gonna be fun. It's not like all girls were food for David. David had once tried caring for girls… as a relationship, but that was decades ago.

It had been a while since David had had an ongoing relationship with one girl. It had been about twenty years since Star… or the attempt that was Star. Star seemed like just the thing to take the boys in another direction. It was always more fun doing things when there was someone to tell you when to stop- and then you don't. Maybe she was the Wendy to their Lost Boys, but Wendy is a pure thing and Wendy has to eventually leave Never Never Land and go home to London to Mother and Father Darling. Star was a failed attempt… she was never even his girl. They'd had a fling, a one-night type of thing that resulted in that old wine bottle being pulled out. Star was just a bad idea. And before Star there hadn't really been a female figure in the life of the boys. You just can't date a mortal girl, and you can't turn every mortal girl you date. This is why David does not cuddle.

This new girl had copper colored hair, a reddish brown. Her skin was creamy and her eyes were dark. She was wearing skin tight black cigarette leg jeans with tall Victorian looking boots that zipped up the side and laced up the front. She had something hanging from her triple row spike stud belt… looked like a knife. Woah… note to self: watch out for girls carrying knives. On top she was wearing a nondescript black shirt with a close-cut black jacket with white pinstripes. With his enhanced vampire vision he could see the velvet accents on the collar and pockets and the skulls molded onto the three big buttons running up the front. The girl looked like a cross between an assassin and an 18th century nobleman. _Fascinating_, thought David. She was different from the other girls in their strange small jackets and short denim skirts, or the girls with big beads over long tunics with skirts and those leggings that didn't go all the way down. Girls today looked like 80's throwbacks with 60's and 70's haircuts and jewelry. They looked like crazy hodge podged whatevers with no direction, but what did he care? It didn't matter what they wore on the outside, it was what it was like on the inside in their veins and arteries that counted. Compared to the crazy looking whatevers going past her, this girl just looked crazy, and that was what would make tonight fun. He wanted to know what this crazy assassin/nobleman chick who went out at night alone was all about. And what better way than to suck the life from her veins?

Marko was the first one to mention Miss Assassin/nobleman. He moved closer like he didn't want her to hear, though they were out of mortal hearing range, "Hey, look at the chick in black over there, she keeps looking at us… wanna go see what's up?"

"Yeah, but she's mine. I want this one," answered David, and then he told the rest.

After some short conversation where she let them all get a good look at her Bowie knife and introductions Evelyn asked, "So, what's happening?" She gave put her eyes into a death-lock on David.

It surprised him at first, it was like she was scoping him out to eat him, it wasn't the usually flirty look-away, look-away flirt-with-the-group-but-really-be pining-for-David approach the boardwalk girls took. He was especially startled when she realized that she was just matching the look he had on his face. He straightened up and leaned his back against the railing like she was, facing the rest. She finally tore her eyes away to look at Paul when he said "Nothin', nothin'. Just having a good time."

"Yeah, it sounded like you guys were having a party over there. I'm glad you guys came over because I might have had to have made a journey over there," she said.

"Yeah… so you're just out here, by yourself? Like Paul said… girls usually travel in packs. Whatcha doin' out here?" said Marko.

"They do. I think it's annoying sometimes. I'm just hanging out over here. I love the fog and the bay and didn't have much to do so I just came down here. I was figuring going down to Haight Street and hanging round there for the night. Or going to a Peet's Coffee and getting a decent brew." They all looked at David. Apparently he was supposed to do something now. He looked at her and opened his mouth as if to speak, but paused. Classic David style, he never responds immediately. "You guys can come with me if you don't have anything to do." Evelyn was used to hanging out with people she just met. Down in her hometown the kids at the club would start talking and go out to one of the late-night restaurants in the arty part of town. Just random new friends you met at the show and on the scene. Especially in a big place like a mall or pier freaky kids would see other freaky kids and all hang out together 'cause they might be sick of all the Aberzombies, or just lonely from seeing everyone who thought they were better than them because of the way they were dressed. So this concept of going somewhere with people wasn't entirely new. It's also why she had her knife: as backup incase she went somewhere with the wrong type of kids.

There were two thoughts going through David's mind simultaneously. The first was _Score, she trusts us. Feeding time…_ and the other was _Hmm, she's interesting. Maybe I'll hang out with her while I'm in town and make her my parting feast_.

---------

At Peet's Evelyn ordered a Cappuccino and then took some Sour Patch Kids out of her big black velvet bag. "Wants some?" she asked the group.

David was analyzing her every move. A group of four boys and one girl… most girls would find that sketchy. Most would be afraid. Four unfamiliar boys acting strange and one girl completely not caring. Most girls would call their friend to come and meet these boys and hang out. What was up with this chick? She started talking to him.

"So, David, do you live in San Francisco?" _She was talking directly to him, not to the group. She'll make a move soon. Doesn't she know what's good for her?_

"No, I live in Santa Carla. The boys and I came up to see what's happening in the rest of the world," answered David, "You?"

"No, actually, I don't either. I'm here visiting. I go to a small college near here. I drove up to come hang out in the city. The college is in a small town and I'm a city girl so I just wanted to take a break from small town college life," she answered.

"Oh. That's cool. What's your, ah, major?" he asked. Evelyn though he looked young enough to be in college and wondered if he went anywhere.

"Art. I paint with oils. I'm minoring in business."

"Hmm, that's quite a collection."

"Yeah. My dad's a business man and my friends are in a band and it's really easy for the music business to screw you over and I just want to make sure I know how to handle things if I'm out there. Do you go to school anywhere?"

"No. I'm not in school."

"Oh."

"So I guess you drove up here alone, too?" he asked.

"No. I had some friends with me. There out doing… whatever."

"So what were you REALLY doing out there on the pier at night alone if you have friends?" asked Marko.

"I felt compelled to go and BE in the fog. I could see it from my window, but I wanted to FEEL it and smell it and taste it so I went down. My friends were asleep. I guess they'll eventually wonder if I died."

Okay. He'd decided she was fascinating. A crazy girl who majored in art… that he could see, but business? Imagine going to a meeting and have a girl dressed like a circus ringleader giving you the quarterly report. She just didn't look like those ambitious businesswomen he saw driving home from work or one of those docile secretary types. She looked like she belonged on a stage with full fog and lights and a big, wailing, electric guitar. She looked crazy and acted homeless with her bag stuffed so full of what-exactly-he-had-NO-clue. A girl who felt compelled to go into the fog alone. A girl with friends who slept like vampires and who had no problem just leaving. Talking to this girl was like an adventure.

He would have to kill her later.


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note: I don't actually live in San Francisco. From facts gathered in the movie the fictional Santa Carla just must be near there since the hotel was affected by the earthquake. Since I don't live there, I don't know the museums. I just made up the San Francisco Museum because I needed a large museum for the story, and since this is fiction, I can do whatever I want. Also, you'll notice that even though this is written in third person, it switches from focusing on Evelyn and her thoughts to David and his thoughts during particular situations.

Oh, and for those of you who aren't familiar with San Francisco: The Haight Haight and Ashbury. It's got a lot to do with hippie culture. Now it is (at least to my understanding) a big center for non-conformist life-style in SF and also one of my favorite places to go when I visit that city.

Castro District Homosexual part of town. Like a lot of Gay districts, it has a funky style that's a lot of fun. You don't have to be gay to hang out in the gay part of town. At least I hope not, because I'm in the gay district of my city sometimes, and insofar I'm a girl for guys. Whatever. It's a fun place.

Chapter 2

While hanging out with the boys, Evelyn got a call from her friend about a Renaissance Art Exhibit down at the San Francisco Museum featuring Caravaggio, one of her favorite artists. She told the boys goodbye and got David's number, feeling very pleased with herself.

David gave her his number and got hers to ensure that this one wouldn't get away before they left for Santa Carla again. He wanted to make a meal of this one, now partly because he wanted to know what her blood was like, and also because he wanted to see what she would do, how she would respond. Would she struggle and jerk about while he tried to keep her still? Would she try and scream? Would she fall limp in resignation and beg him not to do what he knew he had to do? Would she cry? There's many ways to die, and he wondered how this one would go down.

David would have to get that number back from her phone after he killed her. In the new age you had to do that. The police would check the phones and there couldn't be any links.

--------------------------------

The next evening David awoke and after feeding he and the boys wandered around the town. The were stooping on the long staircase outside of the SFM (San Francisco Museum, remember?) and smoking.

"Man, what are you talking about? There are definitely no hot chicks going in or out of some museum," said Paul.

"No, I'm serious. What about that one?" asked Dwayne, gesturing towards a woman walking down the stairs wearing a tightly cut business suit, tailored to show off her curves, and a pair of black pumps with deadly pointed stiletto heels. Her hair pulled back and peering over her black rimmed half-moon glasses, he could definitely see her having some sort of mail-boy-hot-on-top-of-the-desk fantasy.

"She's tight. A good kill but no fun," answered Paul.

"No, no, it would be fun. She thinks she's got everything under control. Just wait, it would definitely be fun when she found out what she'd gotten herself into," said Dwayne.

David laughed his sinister chuckle and took a deep drag. He closed his eyes as he blew it out and when he opened them, he heard a familiar step. He looked around and saw his planned victim walking up the stairs.

Evelyn was wearing those boots again, but today she looked much more docile. She had on a black shirtwaist dress with a corset style ribbon lacing up the front. It looked strangely old fashioned, except back then people only wore so much black during mourning, and during mourning they wore much more conservative style clothes than she was wearing. He wondered about her knife. Yesterday her hair was pulled back but today it ran free blowing around her collarbone and neck. Her trench coat billowed out behind her like a cape, and she turned to see who was looking at her. He turned his face. Her lips were a deeper more purple red today, going well with the dark purple eye shadow that was brushed on her lids over the dark lines around her eyes. Though her clothing was more feminine and fragile-looking today, she still looked dangerous. She turned and continued up the steps.

Maybe tonight was the night he would see how little Miss Evelyn would die. He gave the boys that smile, that smile where you _know_ something is about to happen. Where he's smiling but it's like he doesn't want to smile all too much, because if he does, it might scare people. It's what made the Cheshire cat so creepy. People just don't go around with mile-wide smiles on there faces, unless they're Marko. Marko had creepy smiles covered.

The boys went up the steps, going quickly, a creepy blotch of black leather moving against the dark gray stone of the building. David saw her on the escalator. They moved in. They followed her into the Renaissance Exhibit and snuck stealthily into one of the rooms, where she was staying, gazing at all the paintings for a large amount of time. Paul moved into the room before her, Marko in the next room, and Dwayne by the exit. She was trapped.

David was hungry. It felt like something was moving in his stomach, and it gave him pause. It wasn't like the hunger he normally had, bloodlust or just plain lust. It took him a moment to recall what it was, because it had been so long- what was it they called it? - oh, yes: butterflies in his stomach. He suddenly had the mental flash of him standing there with a bunch of fragile, fluttering pastel colored butterflies in his stomach and it made him snort out loud with laughter. The juxtaposition of himself, David, with butterflies just struck him as funny, but further to the point was that she had actually put him in a situation that had made him nervous. He didn't belong in a museum, unless he was the exhibit. Come see the freak vampire leader! Museums were for art students, people in school, and old people who lived the so-called cultured lives.

-----------

Evelyn saw a splotch of black come in through the door. She always enjoyed seeing people with similar styles, made her feel less lonely, or at least a guy to check out. Her type was rare, each boyfriend radically different than the last. Then she realized it was David. Mmmm, she liked him. She wanted to take him home and keep him there. She wanted to go out and do something fun. She wanted fast times and long nights and she thought that maybe he was tough enough to ride along with her.

He glanced up at her, then pretended not to see her and for some reason snorted with laughter. She looked around. There wasn't much to laugh about. All the people seemed reasonably nondescript. None so overly pompous there right now and no hobos wandering about looking for a place to keep warm from the cool Bay chill.

She wasn't playing that I-don't-see-you-you're-not-stalking-me game. This right here was something that had to be executed quickly. It wasn't like she saw him every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday in art history; he was from out of town. If she wanted to lock him up inside of her and keep him there forever she'd have to make a move. She turned away from the Caravaggio piece and faced him, raising her left eyebrow. He turned and looked at the nearest piece and looked at it. She crossed her arms and cocked her hip; no Bowie knife today.

He turned and looked at her. She raised her shoulders and moved her head as if to say _What?_

---------

David turned to look at a painting to regain that steely grip on his emotions. _Cool_, he thought, i_she's a meal, that's all. Just a real fancy dinner. _He saw her move, she was facing him. She didn't look exactly pleased to see him. Her hip was out to the side and her arms were crossed. Her lips were pursing and her eyebrow was floating upward towards her hairline. Her dark eyes that were the color of a dim forest, like seeing red velvet or black velvet behind a curtain of darkness so it was unclear beneath the brown, were kept trained expertly on him. Her face had a _What the hell are you doing here?_ look altogether. He started walking towards her, feeling weird about the museum security people all around. Her face kept the same expression until he was standing right next to her by the red rope in front of the painting. It seemed to melt into a small smile. It wasn't one of those smiles that made peoples eyes go squinty and gave them laugh lines, but a secretive one like she thought if she smiled too wide, she'd give the game away all too quickly.

She blinked, cueing him to start.

He was about to speak when he realized he didn't start anything. He liked them to come to him.

She opened her mouth and took a breath. "Hello," she said.

He smiled. Though they didn't notice it, they both smiled that same secret smile. A Mona Lisa smile, it's called. Like they know something the other does not. "Yes," he said, in greeting.

She paused. "No."

"No?"

"No. No question. No question in hello."

"Yes. Yes a question."

"Really? Which one and where was it hiding, because I didn't catch it."

He paused. "You want to know why I'm here."

"Well, I assume it's either because you have a hidden love of Renaissance art beneath your rebel façade and are here to see the paintings, or are here to see me."

He paused again. They both had the habit of not answering immediately, of pausing and contemplating, and probably not answering your question. "Possibly."

"To the former or the latter?"

He turned to the painting. "What am I looking at?"

"It's The Death of the Virgin by Caravaggio. He's one of my favorite artists. You can't see it now, but in those times this was very controversial. The actually removed it from the Church it was painted for. See the woman on the board in the red? That's Mary. The woman with the washbasin is Mary Magdalene, and everyone else is an apostle. It was controversial because he painted Mary dead. You can't tell she's the Queen of Heaven at all. She's just a bloated corpse in a poor inn room. Her dress is undone at the top and is up above her ankles. Then that was far too much skin. Also, he used the body of a prostitute they found in the river to model as Mary, and everyone else is probably a peasant like he usually used."

"Hmm," said David in response to her little lesson, rubbing the stubble on his face.

"Yeah, so. That's that. Um, ever been here before?" she asked.

"No."

"Oh, well, they've got lots of stuff, especially now with this exhibit. All these paintings have been traveling around. Tons of famous paintings."

"Hmm. Like what?" asked David.

"Well, this for one. They've got The School of Athens, The Birth of Venus…" and Evelyn started rattling off several names that David didn't recognize. He guess he had heard people talking about them, but none of them drew up pictures in his memory. "You know any of them? It's cool if you don't, a lot of people aren't into that…"

He shook his head.

"Alright then." They were in the last room of the exhibit, and Dwayne was out of site. David knew if she was going anywhere with him he would have to make a move now.

"I don't go to museums much," he said, as they walked together towards the visitor's center.

"Hmm. I didn't use to, but now sometimes I do. I paint, as I said, and art becomes so much more interesting when you start making it yourself. You see things like you never used to. The thing about this day and age, is that with all the photography of today combined with the realism of the Renaissance… well people just look at the _idea_ of the art. They see the picture and not the painting. They see a woman and see a woman. She may be old or ugly or pretty or whatever, but it's a woman they see. They see her draped in silk and velvet. They can't see how it took the combinations of colors to make it so one could distinguish silk from velvet using paint. You can see what would be soft to the touch… but it's all just paint!" David looked at her, surprised at how she would think of this, having never been alive before cameras. "Sorry, I've got caught up in myself. Talking too much. What about you?"

"No, no. It's fine. I like you talking. You say interesting things."

"Mmm. Thank you," said Evelyn.

"Right." They were standing in front of the doors. If they went somewhere now, it would be like a date, sort of. "Are you hungry?"

Evelyn wasn't hungry but she wanted to stay with David. "Yes, I am actually. Are you?"

He nodded. This was no lie.

"Where do you want to go?" she asked.

"Anywhere's fine," he said.

"Alright. Do you want to just… walk?" she asked.

"Yes. Yes I do." This was perfect. He could "walk" he anywhere. He was glad she was wearing something soft. He wanted to feel that slinky fabric while she died.

---------

They ended up getting smoothies and sat on a bus stop bench drinking their smoothies, and stayed there after they'd finished. Evelyn reached into her large bag and pulled out a metal flask. It had a picture of Jesus and the saying 'What wouldn't Jesus Do?' on it. She took a swig and offered it to him. He followed. "Vodka," he said.

She smiled that devilish, deviant smile again. "Yes," she took another swig, "vodka."

For David, this was going more perfectly than he could have planned himself. It's a wonder she was still walking around, she was like perfect vampire bait. She had found him, flirted with him, walked herself out of there, and was now getting her own self liquored up. It was a dream. And then she kissed him.

She had put her hand up to her ears and said "Ahh, my ears are cold form this wind," and he had taken this as an excuse to make a move. He put his hands over her hands on her ears and looked at her. Then she kissed him. All of a sudden her face was so dangerously close to his face, but not kissing yet. Her lips opened and moved closer, but not kissing yet. He took hold of her better and moved in, but she was not kissing yet. Then, she was kissing. She moved the last millimeter and her full lips were soft. He kissed hard. He held her head to his and kissed her like he was going to suck the soul of her right out of her belly. He did that classic making out move, suck the lip. Good way to get people using all parts of there mouths, which eventually can lead to biting, which leads to bleeding, which leads to… yum, if you are David.

_This_ _girl is walking vampire bait. Does she WANT to die or something?_ he thought.

David thought it was time to move in. He kissed her neck like he did before the final clamp down of the jaw, and sank his morphed teeth in. She jumped because she was startled and he tightened his arms around her. This was no longer romantic. Then she demanded he stop. "F-head, who are you? I don't even know you! Stop it," and started hitting his shoulder and neck. She was hitting harder and harder and made a noise of frustration when he grabbed her arms and forced them down by her sides.

This was good. This was perfect! She was fighting. She would go down swinging. Ha ha ha, and she tasted good, sweet and sugary over the coppery blood taste.

"Ugh," she said and sighed exasperatedly. This was not the reaction he'd been expecting. It was like she wasn't even surprised he was a vampire sucking her blood! It was sort of the it-was-bound-to-happen-sometime-but-I-didn't-expect-it-now kind of reaction. She wasn't even screaming! This was interesting.

But then the dream turned horribly wrong. If he hadn't been a vampire planning to kill her everything would have been fine. If he hadn't been David waiting for the right moment to get teeth involved this would have been fun, but he was and she did beat him to what he was hoping for, waiting for. She bit him back. This was not right. He KNEW she was mortal. He could _feel_ her heart beating and her blood pumping and rushing around. What human bites vampires? This had never happened. The thing was not only did it surprise him, it shocked him. He hadn't been bitten since he'd been turned nearly a hundred and fifty years ago!

He was so surprised he stopped drinking, pulled away, and looked at her, his face now half-morphed from the shock. "You bit me!" he said.

"You bit me first!" she said back.

"What! Are you some sort of vampire?" he asked.

"Am _I_ a vampire? Are _you_ a vampire? YOU'RE the one with the freaky face and fangs here! Not to mention the BLOOD running down your chin!" She took a swig from the flask and swirled it around, gargling it then spitting it out.

"Ha! Afraid of a little blood?" he asked.

"Afraid of a little VAMPIRE blood. I don't want to wake up tomorrow to find I have fangs and I can't open my blinds without being obliterated!" she answered. "Give me your shirt."

"No! Why?" David asked.

"Ugh, I have to stop the bleeding," she answered.

"Well maybe that's what you get for going around biting people."

"Going around biting people! YOU, SIR, are the one who lured me away and BIT ME WITH YOUR VAMPIRE FANGS!"

"Everybody makes a big deal about biting people. Biting people, biting people, you vampire we'll stake you, but biting people can be a lot of fun. Plus I have to, it's a necessity of life. Unlike you I can't survive on smoothies," ranted David.

"Oh, I know biting people is fun. It's my thing! I bite people a lot. But you didn't ask me out and I never break the skin on a first date!" said Evelyn.

Okay. That was weird. "So you're complaining because I bit you and didn't buy you dinner first?" asked David. This was _so_ twisted. What sort of psycho-chick was this?


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note: Bunch of original characters here. You don't have to memorize them all, they don't come back much, or at least it isn't on my plan right now but I barely have any idea where this story is going after a few more chapters, but don't worry, duckies, that's just the way I work. Also, if just one person could review, that would be great, because right now no one has and I don't know if anyone is reading these things and I must say, it's discouraging. So if one of you (if there are even two, or one, actually) could just write a little something that would be great. Just so I know that someone's actually reading here.

Also, the plot's moving the fuck out of SF and back into Santa Carla, familiar territory for us all.

Chapter 3

Evelyn woke up in her hotel bed, fully dressed in the same outfit she'd worn last night. She remembered the museum, then David, then kissing, and then things got hazy. She remembered taking out her flask so she must have drank more than she thought. Next she sort of remembered walking to her hotel bed, but not coming into the room. She remembered crawling inside the safety of the covers just wanting to sleep.

What had she done? She needed to call David. She sat up. Her neck was sore. She rubbed it but didn't feel anything. She looked in the mirror but didn't see anything, not even a hickey. She looked at the time. It was 8:37, and judging by the light coming under the curtains, it was AM. Evelyn does not get up at 8:37, and judging by what she had seen of David, he didn't either, and if he did, it was for a job. She decided sleep was more important than calling David.

She pulled of her dress and shoes, and put on a pair of cotton Halloween pajama pants from Old Navy with a bunch of white eyes printed on it on a black background and a random big T-shirt with some random, stupid saying on it like i The flying hamster of doom rains coconuts on your pitiful city /i or i Comfort the disturbed, u disturb /u the comfortable /i or something useless like that. She took her make-up off, glad that her face-sucking session with David had removed her lipstick for her, or else it would have gotten all over the pillowcase and Evelyn didn't like sleeping on pillowcases that looked like battlegrounds. Then, she slept. Hell, this was vacation, time to resume her natural sleeping schedule.

------------

Last night, David had made a quick decision. He decided to use his mind-powers, limited they might be, to mind wipe her. The vodka made it easy, and it was just a quick few minutes he took out. Everything during and after he bit her was blurred out. He found her hotel key-card and took her to her room, where she herself, with a little psychically induced grogginess, went right for her bed, as he had hoped she would. She was a sleepy child. Then, he took his number out of her phone. He was so out of there.

---------

5:14. The digital clock on the end table showed the acid green numbers on its face, spilling the only light out into the room. Evelyn had a rule about not sleeping after six in the evening. Hey, even creepy-kids have to have standards. She got up and went to the bathroom. After she flushed the toilet the door to the connecting room opened. "The vampire arises," said Christy, smiling her own evil smile.

"Yeah, and it's a bitch. My head hurts," said Evelyn.

"Your head always hurts," said Christy, "and so does mine. I never go anywhere without Advil."

"Neither do I, but you know that." Evelyn and Christy were soul sisters, they were like the same person doubled, except for they looked different. Christy was shorter and wider, but she didn't have any fat on her, and she had a perfect hourglass figure, it was just wider than Evelyn's. "This time it's worse. It's like I'm hung over."

"You're flask isn't very much emptier than it was yesterday," said Christy, shaking the flask and listening.

"Really? Weird. Maybe David had some on him. Wait, that's not mine that's yours. No Jesus," said Evelyn.

"Who the hell is David!" yelled Dylan from the other room. Evelyn journeyed in, seeing her friends all in there. The lamps were on, but the blinds were shut, just as Evelyn would have done it.

Evelyn sat down. "No one," she said, wanting to hear their questions, let it out slowly.

"Oh… sounds like a sexy no one," said Janet in a weird voice, giggling.

"Yes, a sexy no one, indeed," said Evelyn.

Christy knew exactly where this was going. "So, what happened?" she asked, and Evelyn knew she meant i So, kissing or sex? /i 

"Face-sucking on a bus stop bench," said Evelyn, "and it was gooooood."

"Who's sucking face?" asked Daniel.

"Me," said Evelyn.

"With who?" asked Daniel.

"No—" started Evelyn.

"Some guy named David," said Jessie. Evelyn was gonna turn them in circles again, god damn her personal life tendencies.

"So who's David?" asked Dylan.

"A guy," answered Evelyn.

"Fuck this, do we get to meet him or what? Where's this going? Are you gonna see him again before we leave?" asked Christy.

"Ooh, is little Evey gonna get any?" asked Janet.

"Yes, the burning questions of everybody. I hope you get to meet him," she paused, wondering whether to just say it or not, "I really like him. And, yeah, Janet, hopefully. Have you guys eaten?" Evelyn asked.

"Yeah, but we've just been snacking. We were waiting for you," answered Dylan.

Everyone decided to go to IHOP.

------------

Meanwhile, The Lost Boys, were sleeping, but the preparations had already been made for their journey back to Santa Carla.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note: i The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town, /i haha I don't even know what that is. I just remember it from some old rock song. Anywho, I don't think there is much you need to know for this chapter. Sorry the last one was so short, that's why I'm posting this one along with it. Sorry it's so ridiculously short. The next one is a lot better and I just needed a filler bit and I'm not finished with the next chapter so I can't post anything. Not much happens here. Also… I'm going out of town.

Chapter 4

The Lost Boys walked around the caravan of bonfires that burnt along the beach, listening to the sound of the parties mixed in with the boardwalk and the waves. This was good. Most of the Surf Nazis and the rockers of the 80's had gone, and now the bonfire parties were inhabited by the more regularly dressed youth of the new millennium. T-shirts and jeans and cargo pants seemed uniform on the boys, and the girls, they were surprised to see, seemed to actually be mirroring some of the 80's fashions with their tunic shirts over tight jeans or leggings. Many had those big earrings or fake pearls adorning them. Others wore tank tops festooned with lace lining the edges, and hoodies and track pants with the word "Juicy" emblazoned on them. The Lost Boys knew that the girls didn't even begin to comprehend the truth in that statement. Juicy indeed.

The tameness of this age disappointed them. The 80's were a wilder time, with loud colors and big hair. Rock music was the anthem of the youth, and now rock had split into many different sects, and all these kids seemed to listen to were hip hop and so-called "rock" bands like Fall Out Boy and Evanescence.

After the mainstream bonfires things seemed to slip into the "indie" and "emo" scenes. The Emo Boys pranced around in tight pants, tighter than the girls by the other bonfires, and sweaters, and the girls wore strange skirts and jeans with sweater vests. They all looked strangely child-like with their hair in there eyes. It was all terribly androgynous and asexual and the boys seemed to all be bi, making out and taking pictures. The music that came from their portable speakers was comprised of bands like Bright Eyes and Dashboard Confessional and Deathcab for Cutie.

Further on things got a little more interesting. The kids, the rockers of this age, called the Punks and the Goths gathered round the fire. Other than the clothes, music, and attitude they were doing the same things as everyone else. Talking, laughing, maybe somebody had an instrument, drinking and smoking whatever. It was just time for them to chill out or party up.

It was one of the juicy girls that David chose now. She had big, round, crystalline eyes and tan skin. Her mouth shimmered in the firelight from the Pink Victoria's Secret brand lip-gloss. She smelled like Armani and reeked of Chanel. She giggled at him. She knew he was from that ratty pack of teenagers. She thought they were homeless. David smelled like it. He didn't smell like body odor so much, but like dirt, cigarettes, and exhaust fumes from his bike. The girl pictured the look on her mother's face if she brought i him /i home. She thought it was funny this punker would come over here. She put down her beer, thinking if she should use him for a quickie, just make-out, or tell him to go away. i He probably tastes like cigarettes /i she thought. "Can I help you?" she asked. i u I /u probably taste like cigarettes /i she realized.

"Yeah, I was wondering if you wanted to go somewhere…" David said. The girl giggled again, picking up her beer and taking a drag on her cig. He was cute and she wondered what he felt like underneath that big coat. "Come on," David said, putting his arm around her. She was drunk. She didn't care, she wanted to go with him. "Drink?" he asked, pulling out a flask of vodka from underneath his trench coat. It had a picture of Jesus on it and said 'What wouldn't Jesus do?'

And then in the shadow under the boardwalk David drank her last drop and then dragged her to a cove, where he left her, knowing the fish and the sharks and all the life of the ocean would devour what was left. The anonymous Juicy girl was joined by a girl in a sweater vest ("She was making razor designs on her self right there? How could I resist someone who was already bleeding…" said Paul), a burly guy in a letter jacket ("He was looking for a fight," said Dwayne), and a young artsy looking woman with a nose ring and a bright yellow hoodie.

Then the boys rode away on their Triumphs, yelling in the night. Later they would cause a public disturbance in front of the Funnel Cake stand, shoplift a 7-11, and crash a party in the desert.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Evelyn couldn't find David's number. It wasn't in her phone. She hadn't written it down. She was confused and sad. She stood in her bathroom at the hotel and looked at herself looking back at her in the mirror. She missed him already, and she had barely known him. An outsider and introvert, Evelyn craved intense social connections, but her social awkwardness hindered her. She was sarcastic and blunt. When she tried to make jokes, people didn't get them or were offended.

Alice tiptoed in. She had short black hair, a thin pale face, and big gray-blue eyes. She was short and small and dressed in plain black clothes. They weren't extravagant like Evelyn's, just plain, simple, and black, black, black. Alice blinked at her. This was her way of asking what was wrong.

"I must have lost his number, or… he took it out?" said Evelyn uncertainly.

Alice was silent, but she made a sympathetic face.

"I don't know why he would. It's strange; I can hardly remember what happened."

Alice raised one eyebrow, questioning and slightly scolding.

"I don't think I drank very much. My flask is gone."

Alice's scolding look disappeared. "Do you think he took it?" she asked.

"Maybe," answered Evelyn. "Lord, I bet he did. He liked it. Bastard, I want it back."

"Then take it. Know where he lives?"

"Santa Carla."

Evelyn had a funny feeling. She couldn't remember what happened, her flask was gone, and David's number was missing. She just had a feeling. A feeling which said find the bastard and get some answers. She got into her black Camaro with her bags to find him. She took Christy and Alice with her. Dylan, Daniel, and Janet had to go back home. They were on a mission guided by impulse.

They stayed in seedy motels and shared beds to save cash. They lived off candy and Little Debbie products. It was a quick trip, Santa Carla wasn't very far


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6- Candygirl

It was daytime, and David was dreaming. There was a pale, slender wrist. It flexed as the fingers moved back and forth. It turned over, exposing the veins, and David's gloveless hands gripped it. He leaned forward and bit down. The blood squirted out like it was trying to escape and it was sweet. It tasted like sugar, sugar, sugar. The skin was vaguely sweet like it was powered with down powdered sugar and the blood was like super-sweet fruit filling. It was like strawberry jam and the cherry filling in Danishes. It was sticky from all the sugar. It didn't even taste like blood. David chewed and licked and swallowed the dream-girl arm, but the arm slid out and he heard steps moving away. He finally looked to see who the candy-blood belonged to and saw Evelyn smiling and backing away.

It was like David was in water. He hadn't felt so uncoordinated and weak since he was alive. It was like everything was getting darker, but he could still hear her steps clicking on the ground. He heard a giddy giggle, but couldn't tell where it came from. He moved after her. She walked outside, and David realized they had been standing in the cave. She stepped out into the early morning sunlight, but David kept following. It didn't even occur to him that he would get burned. He heard the creaking of the rickety steps leading up and walked through the sun-drenched beach towards them and started up, but then he heard her calling, and she was farther away, not on the stairs but towards the water. He ran towards Evelyn. She smiled at him and moved swiftly towards the water. "Find me!" she called. He moved through the boulders, her voice echoing everywhere. How could that be? Then she was on the cliff. "See? I told you that you couldn't… not ever!" she called and laughed like it was a game. He walked up the stairs and they were so long; he could never get to the top, but he did.

She was standing facing him, and she wasn't smiling. Her dress and her hair blew in the wind. David was happy. She was trapped, caught between him and the hundred-foot drop to sharp rocks and cold ocean. He tried to speak to her, to tell her she was caught, but it was good. He couldn't think. His mind was foggy and words came out like they were predetermined, like there was a teleprompter in his brain he didn't know about. "Now, now, now. You are stopped. Nah ah, can't go anywhere now. You… are not a flyer. You'll fall, fall, fall and die, die, die 'cause you will, will, will. I say so. Yup." He stepped forward, his pointy boots crunching the gravel.

She laughed so hard. She was laughing and laughing. "Mm, mm," she said, shaking her head. She stepped of the cliff and fell. He ran to the edge and looked down, but didn't see her. He couldn't hear her. Without thinking he jumped off, but then realized he couldn't fly. He fell down, head first. It still seemed like he was falling when he woke up.

David's eyes shot open. He could still taste the sweet, sugar blood, with a slightly rotten aftertaste. He realized how strange the dream was. He was in the sun for one thing, and how odd had his speech been? He didn't talk like that. He didn't act like that, for that matter, chasing girls and moving slowly and stupidly. He had let her live. It was the first time he'd done that. Would she continue to haunt his dreams until he finished what he had started? Could he even bring himself to kill her? To know that there would be know more of her, and suck away her life? Could he do that?

David noticed he was breathing, which was uncharacteristic in itself. He usually only took a breath when he needed to speak, as the movement of air was required for speaking. He was breathing rather quickly and making small noises. He was frightened and he didn't know why.

He looked up. His boys were still sleeping, hanging peacefully. He floated up to the railing, but then realized it gave him a peculiar feeling, like he was detached from everything, so he went back down, rooted to the ground. He curled up in his jacket and slept like that for the remainder of the day. He hoped the dream wouldn't come back.

"David!" a voice called on the wind. David was dreaming again. He was walking through the sharp boulders that lined the beach near the cave. He was walking and walking and walking. He didn't know what he was looking for, but didn't even think about it. Why he was walking there wasn't important. "David!" The voice was long and loud and full and feminine. It was her, Evelyn. He ran through the rocks. They were like a maze! He ran up one to see better and saw a vision of shimmering white on the cliff again. He could see it was Evelyn standing there. She was wearing a wedding dress with jewels and a veil. She waved to him, her white gloved hand moving gracefully. He ran to where the stairs should be, but there were none. "What are you doing, David?" she called, looking down at him. David woke up.

This made no sense, there was no sense here.

She had tasted like candy. He missed her.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 Boys on Bikes

David. David was in the cave. David was flying out. David was on his bike. David was with the boys. The boys rode through the forest. The boys rode on the roads. The boys were in the town. The boys rode past the shops. Max gave them a knowing nod. They shared the secret. The boys parked their bikes. David was on the boardwalk.

David was leaning against the railings of the pier, smoking a cigarette, scanning the crowd. He got into his hunting mode. It was like a menu walking past him, entrees and desert carts. He knew what he was looking for; candy girls and sugar boys; the homeless kids who only ate cheap processed food and candy from the 7-11. The runaways were easy to pick out. They were the only ones with back packs; they were picking through the trash. Tonight he wanted a sweet one, an innocent girl. Sad eyes and a nervous manner, he could tell them anything.

There she was. Sweet little doe-eyed blonde, she was a one-act tragedy all by herself. She stared at the hamburger stand. She hadn't had any real food for ages, if you could call the burgers on the boardwalk real food.

David had a reputation. He barely had to say anything at all. He walked to the stand, looking at her. She twisted her grody, blonde lock of hair, thinking, adding up the nickels and dimes she had collected that day, contemplating whether or not if she bought that hamburger she would be able to eat the next week. She hated eating from a trashcan.

"One-ten, one-fifteen, one twenty-five, one-fifty, one seventy-five, two dollars, two-oh-five," she whispered, fingering her coins. She finally looked up at the sound of a wallet snapping shut.

"Twenty," said David, smiling, holding up the singular note capable of feeding her for a week at least. She looked while trying to figure out if he was offering her money for a burger, or saying how much he would pay for a blowjob. She didn't trust him. She had seen him around. "No good," is what her friends had said about him, or the people who used to be her friends.

"Uh," she said, still unsure. She thought of running away, but the fact that a boy, a handsome man-boy, was showing interest kept her there. She longed for the human contact.

"Your Wendy, I've seen you around," David said, plucking her name from her mind. David put the bill down on the counter of the cart and ordered a burger. "What do you want?" he asked her. "Just ask, you'll get it."

_He knew who she was_. Wendy had felt so invisible for so long now, ever since she started living on the streets. She was a nobody. She was a drain on society. Her name started losing meaning, she was forgetting who she was. _But he knew who she was_. He was another person, and a somebody at that. If he knew who she was maybe he could help her find out. Maybe she could get her life back, be a somebody again. "I—I—I'd like a cheeseburger with everything on it," she said.

She ate with David and walked with David. She had never had a boyfriend before. Maybe now things would change, be different. David grabbed her wrists and pulled her towards him. He felt so strong, it was wonderful to be in somebody's arms. She thought he was going to kiss her until she felt the sharp pain in her neck. She never knew what was going on. She'd never know anything again.

This was the type of meal you could only find on the boardwalk. Girls like these were never at the desert parties. He remembered Evelyn. This girl, _Wendy_, was nothing like her. 'Why does it matter?" he thought.

David went back to the boardwalk. David smoked on the pier. David was waiting for the boys to return.

Evelyn. Evelyn was in the Santa Carla Hotel. Evelyn took a shower. Evelyn put on her clothes; she was dressed to kill. Evelyn put on her make-up. Evelyn called a cab. Evelyn knew where to go, the heart of the city. Evelyn was on the boardwalk.

Evelyn was a lady with a cause. She had one objective. Find David. What then, who knows? Get the flask. It wasn't even the flask she was really after, just the experience of finding what she wanted and getting it. She wanted that flask and she wanted David to know that she was no dumb chick. She was serious business and you don't mess with a lady like her. She had a lot of self respect and she needed him to know who the hell he had messed with. You don't mess with a lady, and she was a god damned lady.

She walked. She noticed the video store and made a mental note. She liked movies. She saw a carousel. She loved the old fashioned carousel with its organ music and painted horses that went up and down. She found a fierce looking white and gray one and gave her money to the attendant. She went up and down and up and down and round and round and round. She lay her head against the horse's plastic mane and looked out.

She saw the hair first. White-blond and spikey, but then she turned around because the carousel kept turning. She turned all the way around on her horse to see him. Next time round she knew it was him. She turned to get off and run up, but realized she didn't know which way he was. Then she saw him again and stepped off the platform.

David was looking out at the bonfires. He always liked this view. He was thinking about that wedding dress she wore in the dream. It was familiar, but like all memories from his mortal life, the memory was scattered and faded. It was old fashioned, but didn't look old in his dream. It would be old now. The skirt was full and white and flowing. Where would he see a dress like that? At the wedding of course. It was _her_ dress, from so long ago. He could barely remember her name. Not Evelyn, but the girl from before, before he was turned. It was her wedding, she was such a beauty. "_1851_," he thought.

Then something came at him like a bat out of hell. It pushed him, but not very hard. It stuck its hands in his pockets and he grabbed its wrists with lightening speed and the thing cried out. Evelyn.

She stood there, looking just as dangerous as the day her first saw her. Tight pants, big leather boots, no heels this time, just thick soles, plain black tee-shirt, and a leather jacket. It was impossible, but then he remembered he had left her alive. Of course he had.

"Ack!" she squawked, trying to twist her wrists away, "Ehhh ahhh," she said, moaning in pain. He realized he was squeezing her wrists too hard, pushing her joints together.

He suddenly realized just what was going on and became very angry. She was supposed to go home, she was supposed to stay, she SHOULD NOT have followed him. She wasn't listening to him, he knew she wouldn't take his orders. He didn't say anything. His eyebrows were high and his jaw was clenched. She had come simpering after him. He could already hear her stupid beg. _Oh, please, David, take me back! I love you! _Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mortals had this annoying habit of falling in love with vampires. Accidental bewitchment, Max called it.

"What do you think you're doing!" she said, angrily.

David grew even more upset. She had the nerve—to come here and—"What am I doing? What are you doing? I live here. This is my place. Go home." He was so cold, but he needed her to go away.

"You shouldn't break my wrists," she said. David wondered if she had been trying to hug him.

"I can if I want," said David.

Evelyn seemed to bristle with anger. Wait, where was the simpering? What did she want, if not to be all over him? "You will do nothing to me without my permission," she said crisply, "and you most certainly may not break any part of me." David did not like being given orders.

Her hands went in his pockets again. He grabbed her shoulders to push her away this time and asked "Are you trying to rob me?"

"Then what is this?" she asked, holding up her flask, which she had pulled from his trench coat.

David realized what was going on and calmed down. Being angry would only make things worse. She was obviously a lunatic, unstable. "A souvenir," he answered.

She did that scary bristling thing again, where she seemed to grow bigger. She made a disgusted face. "You—" she said.

"Me."

"You… take my things. You… what did you do to me? I can't remember anything? You deleted your number, I know you did. What--? Who--?" Ah, poor girl. She had no idea.

Suddenly, David started thinking things which were not helpful. She looked cute when she was upset. He loved it. The way that she hated him, her short hair trembling with her gesticulations. She put her hands on her hips. Ha, she looked even cuter. "You look cold," David said.

Her angry expression turned to surprise. "I look what?" she asked.

"Cold. The wind… from the sea… it's cold."

"Oh. Well, what's that got to do with you?"

Then he did something that Evelyn didn't expect. He did it so quickly it caught her off her guard. He stepped forward, unzipped the breast pocket or her leather jacket, and slipped the flask back inside. "You—" she said again.

"You're jacket's not real. Leather I mean. It's why you're cold."

"I'm not cold… well, I am… but… not… you…" She gave an exasperated sigh.

"Polyurethane," she said, narrowing her eyes. "Pleather." David said nothing. Evelyn made a face that said 'yeah, so?' Then David smiled at her. Part of her thought 'how dare he act like this' and another part of her just wanted him, just wanted to seduce him, lure him into her clutches to be hers. He raised an eyebrow. "My hands get… cold. Poor circulation," she continued, filling up the silence. 'So much for seduction,' she thought.

David flexed his fingers and took off his gloves. "Gloves?" he asked, "They're real leather." Ah, the classic move. The boy offers an item of clothing. If the girl accepts, it means she likes him back. Evelyn didn't know what to do. She wanted David's gloves. She smiled at him and said "Sure." She thought he would just hand them to her, so she held out her hand.

David remembered how he liked her. He wanted to seduce her, to lure her back to his cave and keep her there. He hoped some day he could hold that hand. Of course he could, he could have anything he wanted, he thought. He took her hand and slipped the glove on it. She seemed surprised. He put the other glove on. "They're too big," he said, "but their warm." They were still warm from his hands. David's skin was still warm and life-like from Wendy's blood. Evelyn smiled. David touched her cheek with his now bare hand. She noticed how long his nails were, but couldn't even think about that right then. She forgot that she hated him. "I'll get my gloves from you tomorrow night," he whispered and went away to find his brothers, his boys.

Evelyn suddenly _did_ feel cold. She missed his warmth and his smell already. Then she remembered she was supposed to hate him and thought 'Oh, I hate that guy,' but she was lying to herself.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8- The Leather Gloves

Evelyn sat on the cheap hotel bed, examining the old gloves. She put them against her face and shivered. She flopped back onto the bed and giggled. She was a bit ashamed, she was not the one to go goo goo ga ga over anyone. In her old schools there were no boys who understood her, per say. They thought she was creepy. Her strange clothes, her weird hair, her blatant sexuality, her silence, they all contributed to her creepiness. If she liked you, she'd pet your hair and stand too close. She liked to smell boys, their cologne. She rarely had crushes. She pushed them down because every time she did, she was rejected, laughed at, and ridiculed. If all combined to make her attraction to people strange, if she liked you and didn't know you, she would "flirt", if she had known you for years, she would repress. It all came down to her wanting to be in complete control of her physical attractions to people, or just go for it. She hated it when she didn't get what she wanted.

Evelyn curled up and went to sleep with the gloves still on. When she awoke to find them still on her hands she felt pathetic. Her loneliness became apparent in the still dark of the hotel room. She took them off and put them on the night table, where they lay like a floppy dead bat.

In that strange time where it's between late and early, before dawn, she heard scratching at her window. When Evelyn was in second grade a boy had told her a story about The Window. The story went like this: a young girl was sleeping and heard noises outside her window. She tried to sleep but the scratching continued. She walked to the window and opened the curtains, and there stood an animated corpse, a vampire, crouching outside her bedroom. She screamed and the thing, it was rotten and death-like, it jumped through the window and grabbed her. She tried to get away, but—Evelyn forgot how the next part of the story went, but ever since that boy told her that story she was always afraid that there would be scary monsters lurking outside the dark windows. As much as she liked a good vampire novel or movie, she was always scared of the Nosferatu at her window. That was the only thing about vampires that frightened her.

Every time she heard the tapping at the window, the scratching of leaves or sticks, she thought of the vampire.

Strangely, on the other hand she also longed for someone to be outside her window. She wished for some boy to pine for her under the window of her room, throwing rocks to get her attention. Maybe the proverbial Lover would have a guitar and flowers. Cliché, and she hated cliché, but part of her longed to be longed for. Every time she heard the noises at the window, she also thought of the Lover.

So who was it, the Vampire or the Lover? The answer was simple, and far less exciting. The answer was tree. A tree was at her window. How lovely.

She wanted David at her window, but David didn't seem like that kind of guy. So Evelyn slept, and Evelyn dreamt. She dreamed of Hollywood vampires with widow's peaks and capes. They scratched at her window and knocked on her door. She ran and ran and found David. She yelled for him but he didn't see the seriousness of the situation. Then the good vampires came, the Ricean vampires with their poetry and their frock coats. They told her nonsense things that seemed like the meanings of life in dreams. From there it went the normal way. There were her family and friends, all jumbled together. Daniel was playing songs on the guitar wearing a suit. Dylan tried to tell her she needed to tap dance. It was the usual.

Alice screeched in the night, or morning, as it were.

"What?" asked Evelyn, sleepy.

"Dreams. People were dying…" Alice said as she lay back down. "It was… there was… nothing. Never mind, go back to sleep."

Evelyn touched the leather gloves and smiled. It was that hackneyed situations where her head was saying no but her heart was saying yes, yes, yes! Oh, what to do! Such a conundrum, such a tragedy.

David slept and didn't dream. The next night they went for the easy meal, the bonfire party. It was quick and dirty, lots of blood and guts and screaming. The Surf Nazis were long gone, washed away in the tides of time. The only other gangs were the Boardwalk Boys, the Ocean Road Kings, and the Snake Street Killers. There were others, lesser known gangs. The unofficial Smith's Kids, preadolescents who hung out behind the general store, stealing candy bars. The Lost Boys were the leaders, being the oldest gang. Nobody really realized they weren't growing older. All the boardwalk kids eventually grew up and started hanging out at the Country Club or what have you, and didn't see the same old gang on the boardwalk, forever young.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9- Enter Isabel

Los Angeles vampire, not an easy thing to be. The city was so crowded, the living, the dead, and those who were a bit iffy. There were almost as many vampire gangs as human gangs, and many of them just as large. Her gang did alright, though.

Isabel felt him before she heard him. She felt his presence in her somewhere almost every night, but she also felt his silence. They were estranged, Isabel and David. She hadn't seen him for a century and a half, but they were both in California now. She could have probably heard his thoughts if she wished, broken through the mental barrier he set up to the world, put a peephole in his brain. But she didn't. She didn't want to know anymore. She didn't want to have his _presence_ fill her again. She almost wanted to leave LA when she realized how close they were geographically, but it was her idea to move the gang to LA and didn't want them to know how much he hurt her. Whether she wanted to or not, she could still always tell when he was thinking of her, calling out to her. Sometimes his mind did that, in his sleep, or his subconscious would give a murmur, but just that, a murmur.

It was one of those nights that night; 'the dress, the dress' his mind whispered. She tried to block it out. 'A lovely wedding'. Isabel opened her eyes to the dark room in the daytime. "Stop it," she said, but she was still half asleep and when she closed her eyes, she dreamed of him.

It was a strange dream, a jumble of memories jumbled together. There stood David, touching the dress which was worn by a modern day manikin. Isabel was sitting on the bed. They were in their old room, their chambers in the castle again. She was wearing a full gown, like she used to back in the 1850's, but David was not as he used to be. His hair, once long and golden white, was now flat in color but spiked in appearance. He wore a long coat with that same old charm. That, she recognized. His shirt was plain as were his pants. Black on black. The image must have transferred unwillingly from one mind to another. She wondered if he knew what she looked like. She had cut off all her hair. David turned and looked at her. He had a bit of stubble now. It suited him. He touched the dress again and walked out the door.

Then the dream changed. She was running down the hallway, with that ridiculous walk they used to make you learn. Her corset felt stiff around her and her hair bounced and tipped, as it was perched precariously high up on top of her head. She wasn't even thinking of what she was running after. It became one of those dreams where it was like you were in Jell-O and couldn't move properly. She hadn't felt so weak since she was turned into a vampire. She was on the steps of the castle. She heard him in the stables and saw him ride out and out again through the gates to the grounds, away from her on a motorcycle. Then she was alone in the foggy English countryside. She felt that heartbreak, that terrible abandonment all over again.

She knew that wasn't how it had happened in real life, though, all those years ago.

'Did he do that on purpose,' she thought later that night, 'just to needle me?' That would be inexcusable. Didn't he know how much he had hurt her, how much it hurt her to… she couldn't even think about it. She had almost doubled over, physically retched at the emotional pain. No, no, no, he couldn't be allowed to do this to her. He couldn't be allowed to send her mental pictures of himself riding fast away from her. She smiled, or grimaced, rather, and looked at the sea. She opened her mouth, about to speak. 'What if he didn't do it on purpose?' She was having doubts. No, David was getting her back for moving so close. She took a breath and whispered loudly "David," focusing her energy on him.

And miles and miles away, up the coastline, David sat up straight. "What?" he whispered aloud to the empty desert. "What?" David searched for her mind, way away in the same darkness, but only came up against a mental brick wall in her head. "Why are you doing this?" David had been trying not to think about her, but it was hard since she had moved so close. He hadn't done anything to her. Not ever. And now she was here, sending him messages straight into his mind?

David drove hard and fast towards the boardwalk, trying to drown out the sounds in his brain. For that one brief moment when she had reconnected their minds to speak to him, all the energy that had built up between them trying to sever the mental link flooded into each other, and he could hear some of the random jumble of her thoughts over the years floating around. She was in LA. She had her own gang. He saw them, he heard their names. Inky and Dolly and Val. He was horrified to see her hair cut off, buzzed nearly to the scalp. He saw she had evolved much in the way he had, tight jeans, leather jacket, but underneath she had a silver and black leopard print tank top with spaghetti straps. It was a size to small and barely came below her navel. He saw her giant black boots and her Diablo. Random facts spilled in. She liked angry music and spooky clubs. She liked French Fries, IHOP, and Butterfingers were her favorite candy and that she liked Danishes with coffee with caramel in it. She still liked roses, red, red, roses. She had bought a peacock feathered mirror and Inky had drawn Isabel's face on with paint pen because she couldn't see herself in it. She bought it because she loved peacock feathers. Some things didn't change. One of Isabel's favorite things to do was to play with feathers in the wind.

'Whatever,' David told himself forcefully. She wasn't around anymore. She didn't matter.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10- Hole

David felt the hole again. Isabel had really left her mark on him. But no more. She no longer had any claim to him. He felt so lonely. He had his boys, but his boys were no there for him to hold. What David had was not loneliness for company, but loneliness for a woman. Where was Evelyn, the stranger in the night?

Evelyn wanted to look good. She always thought she was pretty, she was blessed with good self-esteem, but she wanted _David_ to know how pretty she was. She wanted him to think she was gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous and how he would never leave her. Evelyn always like to be the one doing the leaving, not the one being left. She still didn't have David's number. She couldn't believe she still wanted to go out with David, after he had proved himself such a flake. Why would she trust a guy who she had a memory blackout with? 'Cause she was crazy and curious, that's why. Evelyn put on a plain black dress that poofed out at the skirt. She put on boots and a velvet ribbon round her neck and looked like a combat ballerina. It was a bit cool, so she took a velvet cape. She hoped David liked capes. She still didn't have David's number.

She waited at the boardwalk. She road the carousel over and over again. 'Find me, David,' she thought. She had his gloves, but she was wearing her own. She went up and down and up and down on her unicorn, waiting for David. She gave dollars and dollars to the attendant and felt dizzy when she got off. She stumbled into the crowd. Suddenly she felt like a freak. She was alone and dressed like a crazy person. She felt self-conscious. Ugly and stupid were the words that kept racing through her mind. Ugly in her clothes, stupid to wear them, and stupid to think David would come back.

And then there was Alice, her small pale frame reflecting the lights of the attractions. She had put silver glitter in her hair and over her eyes. Her lips shone with the same shade of silver, strange and fairy-like. Alice took her hand. David wasn't coming.

"What do you want to do?" asked Alice?

"I—I want to go home. To the hotel I mean. I wanna watch a movie." Evelyn had always love movies.

"I think I saw—"

"Yeah, you did. I did to. Max's Video. Let's go."

They walked, two pixies, into the garish lights of the video rental store. They saw a man, a rather benign looking specimen, smiling at them. He noticed Evelyn's heartbroken expression and Alice's inquisitively blank expression, staring at the world with wide, bright eyes.

"What do you want?" Alice whispered to Evelyn.

"Can I help you, ladies?" asked the kindly man, who clearly worked at the store.

"A familiar one," Evelyn whispered back.

Alice knew Evelyn's favorites. Interview with the Vampire, the Virgin Suicides, Queen of the Damned, Donnie Darko, Bram Stoker's Dracula and a slue of other vampire films. "Ah, you're horror section, please?" asked Alice. Strange that Evelyn and her looked to horror movies for comfort, or movies where all the main characters died.

The kindly man pointed them in the right direction. Evelyn looked for Queen of the Damned first, a simple plot, easy on the eyes, easy on the mind, but couldn't find it. She looked for Underworld, she really didn't feel like a vampire romance, but it, too, was missing. Interview with the Vampire, Dracula, all of them were missing. Evelyn didn't think you could _have_ a video store and not have Dracula. Frankenstein and the Wolfman were all there, but no Dracula.

Alice asked the kindly man if they carried Underworld, being the most recently released on their list.

"No, I don't believe we do," answered the man, Max, by his nametag. "Can I assist you with something else?"

"Yes, ah, what about Queen of the Damned or Interview with the Vampire?"

Max shook his head.

"Not even Dracula?"

"I can order these titles for you if you want," said Max. Evelyn was giving him a strange look. How could you have a video store with no Dracula? It was like having a music store with no Beethoven, he was a classic.

They ended up getting Donnie Darko, but not before Evelyn had checked the premises for _any fang flick at all_. There were none. It was awful. It was terrible. She was in a town with a distinct lack of vampire movies. Oh, what a tragedy! Where was her beloved Lestat and Louis? Where was Prince Vlad cavorting around with Mina? Where was Selene, warrior of the night?

"Impossible," whispered Evelyn as they walked out the door.

Alice looked at her. She knew.

Suddenly a bright light blinded them. Evelyn put her gloved hand in front of her face and squinted. She could hear the motor and smell the gas: a motorbike. The light switched off, a lighter flicked on. A cigarette burned in the night. Pale hands raised the cigarette to his lips, hands that lacked their usual riding gloves.

"Gonna spend the night in, huh?" asked David motioning to the DVD in the shopping bag.

Evelyn was so happy to see him, but if he felt the same way about her as she did about him he should have come running to meet her, not left her hanging. "I waited for you?" David smiled, a man of few words. Evelyn thought his smile was sexy and devious, but she wouldn't let him know. Evelyn was at a loss. She didn't know what to say. She decided on bluntness. "I like you, David. I like your eyes and manner and the way you smell, but you left me in San Francisco, and when I came to see you again at the place we'd met before, you weren't there. You didn't even pass by. I waited till midnight. I'm not one for planning, but I wanted to see you. I thought you wanted to see me too. I was going to give you another chance, but there's things you're not telling me and right now you just seem flakey. So speak. C'mon. Tell me."

"What do you want to know?" asked David.

"Start answering my questions, David—"

"What? What? Your not even asking anything? 'Speak, speak,' is what you say but what do you want to hear?"

"Just—everything. Look, start with… San Francisco… or where you were tonight—"

"Hey, hey, hey," David said softly, walking up to her and putting his hands on her shoulders. 'Calm,' he told her mentally. 'Chill.' "I'm sorry. I said I'd see you tomorrow and to me it still seems like tomorrow. I'm sorry. Cool?" David wasn't in the habit of apologizing. He was, though, good at calming chicks down who were freaking out. "Hey," he whispered, stroking her face, "you wanna go somewhere?"

Evelyn wanted to go somewhere. She really, really wanted to go somewhere with David, 'cause it was Daviddaviddaviddaviddavid. Whoohoo! She looked at Alice. Her words turned doughy in her mouth. She didn't want to abandon Alice. "Go," said Alice. "I've got stuff to do." And Alice walked away.

Evelyn looked at David and started nodding her head.

David led Evelyn over to his bike. "We're going on that?" she asked.

"Yeah," said David. He searched her for apprehension; a lot of girls didn't like bikes, but Evelyn just hopped right on.

"My daddy used to have a bike. This one's smaller though," Evelyn said.

David raised his eyebrows. "What kind of bike did he have?" he asked.

"I dunno. It was a little shorter than this one in length, but it was a lot wider. We used to have two little mo-peds that looked like this." Evelyn was teasing him, insulting his bike.

"Did he ever take you on it?" David asked, already on the front part of the bike, looking back at her. He kicked up the kickstand.

"Yeah, sometimes," Evelyn answered.

"Bet he never went as fast as this," David said before taking off, rocketing out of the parking lot and into the street. That would show her David had a better bike then her father.

Evelyn shrieked a little bit when David took off so fast so suddenly. It was like when you were at the top of a rollercoaster and suddenly you tip over the highest part and go racing down. It was just a little scream, short and high. She had her arms around him and squeezed him so hard she thought he would have to tell her to stop because he couldn't breathe, but he didn't. She could feel his abdomen muscles tightening underneath his two coats.

They pulled up at the back of a movie theater. The midnight movie was playing and passing by she could see it was Night of the Living Dead. David got off the bike and pulled Evelyn off and kissed her roughly on the mouth. He pulled her along towards the movie theater and they went in the backdoor. Evelyn had never been moved with such force by a date, but David moved gracefully. He was moving so fast… he was weirdly strong for someone with such a slight frame underneath all that clothing. He turned and smiled at her. His smile was cool and gentle and didn't match up with the quick way he was moving. He was holding her hand and he seemed to shoot up the steps the back row without making a sound. He moved with such grace, and Evelyn was clunking up the stairs after him, her movements jerky from being pulled.

"You went so fast," Evelyn whispered when they had sat down.

David looked concerned for a moment, his cool sly smile faltering. "Did I?" he asked. He was looking right at her again, his smile back. Evelyn pushed the armrest/drink holder that was between them up.

Then they were kissing, and not gentle kissing either. David kissed her roughly, beastly. He held her tightly and she liked feeling so loved to be held so tight. But he was so surreally strong; it was like he could break her in two if he wanted. He didn't seem to be straining though… funny.

David hadn't meant to go so fast up the stairs. He was just going and he was excited. David liked kissing. He realized in mid-kiss that he was probably squeezing too hard. Usually when he had some girl in his arms he was trying to prevent them from escaping. She was surely noticing his vampire strength now.

Oh, how he wanted to taste her blood again. It had been so sweet like sugar. He had to concentrate very hard to keep from slipping into fang and accidentally massacring her sweet face. Suddenly David had a feeling he hadn't had in a while: danger. There was hardly any danger to him so he hardly even sensed danger, but he realized now that he was a danger to her. They finally broke apart for air and as Evelyn laid her head on his chest, her arms entangled around his neck, David realized his vampire instincts wouldn't let her go. Too many nights of practice kept his arms locked around her. She seemed too much like prey.

Evelyn was going to sit up and watch the end of the movie which had already started before they came in and realized she couldn't move David's arms. She sat up but he was still holding her, not as tightly as before in terms of pressure, but she couldn't break free. David was staring straight at the screen. He seemed to be watching the movie awfully intently. She wasn't too alarmed that David wouldn't let her go, so she turned and watched the movie. David was surely an odd fellow. Most guys just put their arm around your seat back, but David had both his hands planted firmly on her, his arms encircling her. She laid her head on the seat back. She hadn't realized how sleepy she was.

'Sleep,' David had told Evelyn's mind. 'Notice nothing,' and so she did. She slept on the seat amidst the screams of the zombie victims.

David carried her out to his bike. He was going to have to do something about this. 'Bite,' his subconscious told her. 'Just a taste, remember? Remember how delicious she was?' David tried… but it was the only thing he could think of to do. His vampire nature had a hold of him; convincing him the only logically choice was to have a snack. That would appease his vampire instincts. He'd let go of her, heal the wound with his blood, and who would ever know? No one.

David smiled. He knew what he had to do. He laid her out on the motorcycle. He was already morphed, fangs and all. He wondered when that had happened. In the theater? Walking out into the back parking lot? He didn't care just now. With a practiced motion he took her head in his hands, moving her hair away, and tilting her head sideways. He covered her mouth, just in case. 'Don't wake up,' he instructed her, and then he bent over and chomped down. He didn't take a piece out of her, just punctured the skin. The blood flowed out quickly, as it always did, as if it were all clamoring to get into his mouth.

Evelyn's face twitched, and that was all. David pulled himself away. It was always so hard to do. He bit into the pad of his finger and smeared the blood, his blood, onto the neck wound. It healed within a minute. He smiled. He felt much better now.

"Evelyn?" he asked, trying to seem quiet and gentle.

"Mmm," was all she said.

"You fell asleep, Evelyn," David said to her, softly.

"Did I?" she raised her head and made a funny face. She rubbed her neck. "I must have. God, my neck is sore."

"C'mon, Evelyn. You gotta stay awake so I can get you home. You can't fall off," said David.

"Mmm, okay," Said Evelyn sleepily. She was soooooooo groggy. She looked at David. Her face faltered for a moment. Groggy. Groggy again. But it was much more likely that she had just fallen asleep in a dark room.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: (IMPORTANT) I am making some changes to the story. I realized that some of the content I had in there wasn't really rated T so I edited it out. I'm not really one for censoring, but I didn't think it was NC-17, nor did I want it to be because most of the time only displays G-T stories and you have to change the settings and I wanted mine to be read. So, the plot is the same, but I changed some words and added some s. Also, I FINALY fixed the italicization of the words. At first I was doing it in basic, but then I saw the I's were showing up so I switched to html code, but it was still not working properly so FINALLY I figured out if I just italicized it in word, it should carry over (at least that's what I think it meant when I read the documents page). But that's what I'm working on now, changing the documents. That's also why I didn't post the new chaps for a while. Also, I have written chapters 11-20, but they are still in the works. I'm still changing some details and plot points, but it's a three-day weekend so hopefully I'll post them. I also thought if I didn't write anything, I would fix the chapters instead, which I did, eventually.

So that's the news, here's the story. This is actually my least favorite chapter. Really, it's transition and I don't think it's believable. Maybe I shouldn't be telling you this, but I'm apologizing in advance. Tell me what you think? I didn't post this also because I don't like this one.

Chapter 11- No Secrets Among Brothers

Alice gasped, sitting on Evelyn's bed. "He's _gorgeous_. He's," she paused and giggled, "_smoldering_," she whispered.

"My friend, since when have you used words like smoldering?" Evelyn asked Alice. Alice laughed.

Alice looked at Evelyn, her gray eyes becoming serious. "He's pretty hot, though."

Evelyn didn't say anything, but the temperature in her face was reaching infernal heights.

"Oh, quit repressing. Admit it. There's nothing wrong with liking a guy like David. C'mon. He _liiiiiiikes_ you," Alice said, poking Evelyn.

"Since when have you been so god damned perky," muttered Evelyn.

Alice got off Evelyn's bed and turned away.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. It's just… he's really weird," Evelyn said.

Alice turned around. "Evelyn, you're weird. I'm weird. Basically everyone we know is weird! You like weird. You've said it. I've heard you say it!"

"I know… and all that's true, but… I can't remember our first date and he's always disappearing and showing up and… it's just weird. He's not just weird. I like weird, I do. He's spooky. He's spooky in a way I've never seen before. I don't know what to think… he gives me a weird feeling."

Alice rolled her eyes. "It's 'cause you like him." Evelyn gave Alice a look. "Or not. Listen, I don't know. Just keep your guard up like always then. Take a knife if you want… but… don't just throw him away. At least wait for evidence." Evelyn didn't know that that evidence was locked away in her brain, hidden by David's mind magic.

David was worried. She couldn't find out. Evelyn could not find out that he was a vampire. He could picture her in his mind, screaming and crying, beating at his chest. She'd probably say "how could you". It's what Isabel had done, all those years ago, in 1853. He thought about her. That's why she had left, because he had turned into a vampire. He didn't want Evelyn to go away like that.

That night David told Paul, Dwayne, and Marko everything. Almost. He left out Isabel, starting at how he had left Evelyn alive. David told them how he wanted her to come and stay in the cave with them. He said it like it was an order, but the boys knew that he was asking them in his own David way. They had liked her; she was nice, unpretentious, and independent. They wouldn't mind getting to know her. They wouldn't mind having her stay in one of the old beds. "But we can't let her know what we are," David said, "not until much later."

"But wouldn't it be better to keep her at a distance, then?" asked Marko.

"No, no. It's 'cause she's staying in a crappy hotel now, and I think she'll like it here. If we give her a place to stay she'll grow more attached and want to stay. I mean, she's in a hotel. She could leave whenever." David knew the real reason he wanted her to come and stay. He wanted to be with her, to live with her, to see her every night.

"You think she'll like the cave?" asked Paul.

"Yeah," said David, but he wasn't sure at all.

"C'mon, Evelyn," David said the next night. Evelyn walked with David to his motorcycle. David turned around and faced her. "Do you like trespassing?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Evelyn, "but it depends where. I like trespassing, but I don't like jail."

"You won't go to jail. It's not really trespassing anyway. It's our—the boys and I—place. It just has a bunch of cool signs saying things like 'Caution!' and 'Unlawful to go past this point!' Get on," he said, now sitting on the bike.

Evelyn didn't need to be told twice. She liked bikes. She wished she had a helmet, though. Her father had always had her wear a helmet. She put her arms around David and they took off. While they were riding Evelyn thought about the questions she wanted to ask David. She didn't beat the answers about San Francisco out of him because she wanted a relationship, but she also didn't want to end up dead. She just didn't want to ruin it. She was afraid of what the answers would be.

David stopped just at the edge of the cliff on Hudson's Bluff. "David!" Evelyn squealed, digging her long fingers into him.

He smiled. "Afraid of heights?" he asked.

She scowled at him. She would never admit her fear. She heard the other boys pulling onto the Bluff on their own bikes. "C'mon," said David, "I want to show you something. It's cool, trust me."

They walked down the creaky wooden stairs and the others lit the trashcan fires and turned on what looked like big heavy-duty lanterns. It was an old hotel. It was an old, collapsed hotel. Evelyn gasped. She loved antiquities. She loved what the boys had added as well: the strange mobiles of bones and starfish, the posters, and the god-knows-what of everything that was lying around. Was that a wheelchair?

"It's cool, isn't it?" whispered David into her ear.

"Very cool," she said, touching the old fountain. "What… how?"

David went through his spiel about the "hottest resort in 1906" and when the "big one hit San Francisco". "… and now it's ours," he finished. Evelyn was very impressed. This was one of the coolest haunts she'd ever seen.

Evelyn noticed how the place looked really lived in. "You ever crash here?" she said, noticing the bed.

"Always," said David smiling. "You can, too, if you want. See? There's this bed…" Evelyn suddenly got a weird feeling about the bed. Was it there for sleeping or for the boys to bring girls back to?

"So, you live near here?" asked Evelyn, still not comprehending that they lived _in_ the cave.

"Well, we liked this cave so much…" said David. The boys were all watching them, "… we eventually just started," David paused and tried to gauge Evelyn's reaction "living here." He somehow wanted Evelyn's approval.

"You squat an old hotel that's fallen into a cave. Never heard anything like that before. I'm down with that," Evelyn said, nodding. Evelyn was used to the weirdness. She was used to just "going with it" when things got strange. It was normal to her now. Like Alice had said, most of their friends were spooky.

Evelyn touched the bed. It _looked_ clean. "We changed the sheets!" called Marko. Evelyn was flattered. They had made room for her. Evelyn lay down on the bed. She was always sleepy. She yawned and looked at her glow in the dark watch. It was four in the morning. She looked up at David and the boys. 'This is weird' she thought, but strangely wasn't bothered. Even though she didn't intend to, she soon fell asleep. She hoped David would stay with her.

_Three weeks later_

"Jeezy Creezy, Marko! Don't do that!" said Evelyn, creeping across the cave.

"Whatcha doin'?" asked Marko. It was dark in the cave and he had suddenly turned on that light as she was tiptoeing quickly across the floor.

"I'm not doing anything. What are you doing up anyhow? It's still pretty early for you guys," she asked.

"Just walkin' around," he said and he was right. The sun was now below the horizon. "What were ya doin'?" asked Marko again.

"Yeah, you guys are vampires. You sleep _all _day," she joked, having no idea how right she was. "I was taking a poo. Why?" she asked.

Marko laughed. "Don't be stupid. Girls don't shit!" said Marko.

That was one of the downsides of staying with the boys: no indoor plumbing. Evelyn didn't even realize that she had moved in until a week after it had happened. First she was just spending the nights—or days—sleeping in the old bed and hanging out with the boys and David before. Then she mentioned wanting to paint something and David told her to bring her easel over. She had told Alice that she could go back and spend the rest of Spring Break back at their college. Then she took all the clothes she had packed over to the cave. She checked out of the hotel room and paid her bill. Then she dropped out of college. She hadn't even thought about it until she had been calling their apartment near the college they went to where they lived to ask if they could send her the rest of her stuff when she thought 'Woah… I just met this guy… and now I'm living with him? In a cave?' but when she saw David again and they were having so much fun she just… forgot. Her life was like a dream now. She woke up when she wanted, stayed up as late as she wanted, did whatever she wanted, and all with David. They were lovers now. And just as she had forgotten about the oddities of living with your boyfriend in a cave she forgot about San Francisco… it just floated into the back of her mind. She didn't want to ruin a good thing. It was almost as if her life before had been a dream. She was having so much fun; she was so care free. It was all like one big party, one long vacation.

Evelyn crawled into the bed. There was David, still with a distinct lack of clothing from last night—or morning. They had gone to bed around five, and gone to sleep around six. She lay on top of the covers. "David," she whispered, touching his cheek. "David?"

"Mmm?" he mumbled in response.

"I'm hungry, David," she said.

David cracked one eye open mischievously. "Hungry for what?" he asked suggestively.

Evelyn laughed at him. "Food, silly. Ya wanna go down to the IHOP or something? Or that café that serves that coffee I like? With the sandwiches and stuff?"

David groaned as he propped himself up on his elbows and looked at the shadows on the wall. "Ooh, you're up early," he said, noticing the setting sun, still over the horizon.

"Yeah," she said and laughed. "Y'know, most people call this late. I've always been accustomed to sleeping in till two and staying up till four or later, but you guys have got me beat. You sleep later than anyone I've ever met. I swear, I was just telling Marko that you guys are like vampires."

David opened his eyes again, surprised. "We're not vampires," he said, more serious than usual. "Marko—Marko's up?" he asked, still a bit befuddled since the sun hadn't set yet.

"Yeah. Yeah, he his. I went to the bathroom and he scared the shit out of me as I was coming back."

"Weird," said David. He couldn't figure out why Marko would be up, he was too tired.

"So no food?" asked Evelyn sadly.

David groaned. "Can't you wait?" he asked.

"David, it's six o'clock. We can sleep later," Evelyn said, pushing David. She liked going out on the boardwalk just she and him. Truth was, she was hungry, but she also wanted those other girls to see them together. The day-walking preppy school girls going to the Abercrombie and the Cotton Island. She knew that they didn't like her, and that they thought that David was sexy in that unattainable way; unattainable for them, at least. Some of them had been laughing at her the other day when she went out to go buy some food. They thought she was lonely and sad and pathetic. They didn't know because they weren't into the wild scene of the boardwalk. They didn't see her ride around on the back of a motorcycle and party late into the night. She wanted them to know… just once.

"I want to sleep now," David said, falling asleep. "Go away," he said, pushing her hand away, now almost completely asleep.

"Fine," said Evelyn, and lay back down to rest. He was just so impossible sometimes.

When David woke up he got dressed and walked towards the main part of the cave. He looked around for Evelyn. She was still sitting on the bed. She looked a mite upset.

"Am I 'away' enough for you?" she asked.

David had no idea what she was talking about.

"Away. This morning I wanted to go get something to eat. I was hungry. And you said that you wanted to sleep. You told me to go away," she said.

David took a step towards her. "I was tired was all. I didn't know what I was saying. It was morning."

"It was six. Six in the evening," said Evelyn pointedly.

"Oh," said David. He didn't know what to do in situations like these. Normally he would've just sent the girl packing, and the boys wouldn't care if he said 'go away'. The boys wouldn't even want to go do anything while the sun was still up, they were vampires! He couldn't tell her why he couldn't have gone and ate with her. He was stuck. This had been happening more and more. She would've figured it out by now had he not been tweaking her brain. 'Relax' he told her mind. 'Forgive' he said to her thoughts. And she did. She sighed and said "Alright."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12- Lectures from Max

"David, I'm concerned about you and this girl. The human girl," said Max to David in the back of the video store.

David looked up at Max and leaned back onto the boxes in the storage room.

"She's living with you now so you have given yourself two options. Option one is the most obvious: kill her. That shouldn't be a problem. You do it every night, for God's sake! Option two would be to turn her, to bring her into the family as your mate," said Max. Max was very old. He used words like 'mate' for vampire lovers instead of 'girlfriend', as David would have used. David was not so old. He was born in the 1833, turned in 1853.

"But—" said David.

"But she doesn't even know the truth yet. You've really backed yourself into a corner on that one, my boy. You've said it outright. 'We are not vampires.' She's going to call you a liar, you know. She'll be right to do so."

"She'll what?" asked David.

"She'll be right. I'm not objecting to you keeping a woman, David, or taking a bride or any of that, but really, David… she's been living with you for a month now. She does your laundry," he laughed here, "scarce as it may be—I know you like to wear your clothes for weeks. I see her hauling it past here on the way to the Laundromat. Regardless, it seems like serious relationship, and not telling your serious girlfriend that you are a vampire is just not good manners," said Max.

David laughed. Manners. Max was not only old, he acted like an old guy too.

"And I'm worried about her mental state, too. You keep changing things around in her brain, eventually things are going to get messed up in there. You just can't keep making her think and do what you want her to. She could become schizophrenic or develop multiple personalities. David," Max admonished, looking him in the eye. "Look at me when I'm talking to you, David. You've got to tell her and turn her, or simply kill her. Listen, time is what we have the most of so I'll give you a month. Bring her to me on the twenty-first of June as a vampire or a corpse or I will have to assume that you want her dead and couldn't do it yourself… so I will find her and I will kill her in your stead."

David didn't know what he was going to do. He wanted to turn her, but this is how it went with Isabel… once she was turned she left. "Can't I just set her free?" he asked.

"Oh, David, you make her sound like she's your prisoner or pet. In a way maybe she is your pet, but no, you can't. If she figures it out afterwards… Santa Carla could be crawling with Hunters by the next sundown. Hell hat no fury like a woman scorned, eh?" said Max.

He was so fatherly to David sometimes. It almost annoyed him because he never saw him otherwise, but Max was the head vampire and David was bound to him. Max let them live and hunt in Santa Carla in return for loyalty. It was a simple relationship, but at times like these it got complicated.

"The twenty-first, remember?" said Max and David was leaving out the back door.

David nodded and smiled.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13- Hole Part Two

Isabel lay there in the dark. She could hear the dripping water from the pipes in the warehouse where they stayed around her. She sat up, disentangling herself from the blankets around her. She slept in an old refrigerator, the kind with the little freezer on top. She had knocked out the space in between the two and had ripped out the shelves and drawers. Now with the blankets and pillows she had put in it, it made a fine bed. She could shut the top and it was just like a coffin. She could open the freezer and it was like a skylight. She kept her backpack and a duffel bag with everything she owned in it at the bottom of the refrigerator.

She had an apartment in New Orleans, which housed the rest of her belongings, except for what was in her car. She'd had the same apartment since she first came to America in 1853. It was strange for an English woman to be living in the French and Spanish city, but her family had been French. Her grandmother and grandfather had fled France during the revolution, taking their small daughter with them. Her father's family had done the same. Isabel's parents grew up in England, where Isabel was born in 1835 and would eventually die in that fateful year of 1853.

But now she was thinking of 1851. She reached into her backpack and at the very bottom pulled out a box. It was a small box, leather with pale blue silk on the inside. It was the case for a small daguerreotype, not four inches long. A woman sat in a chair, wearing a beautiful white dress, and a smartly dressed man stood behind her. They were both just out of childhood. The man, or boy, as it were, was seventeen, just about to turn eighteen that August, and the woman was sixteen. It was Isabel and David, and had been taken not long after their wedding. The only other object in the box was a ring. It was silver, with diamonds and sapphires. Isabel had always wished they were rubies; she had always liked them much better.

Isabel slipped the ring on her finger and remembered how David had put the ring on her that afternoon in June. She remembered the next two years… sipping tea with the other ladies while David played polo with the other lords in the summer, the birth of their baby the next March, and then almost a year later in January, the death of that baby. She had been eighteen. Eighteen year old girls today were just starting out; they weren't married with children, cooped up in a big house. She remembered why she hated David; she remembered why she loved him.

It had been one hundred and fifty years. Maybe it was time to forgive David. Isabel at least wanted to see him. That's why she woke Inky and Dolly and Val up just as the sun was setting. She wanted to be ready by the time the sun had set. They knew about David.

"Are you gonna try and fix things?" asked Inky.

Isabel shook her head. "I don't know. I really don't. I wanna see him, so I am. That's the deal."

"I get it," said Val, her old French and Haitian accent distinct, "but don't go an' make a fool of yourself 'cause of him."

Isabel's gang of vampires was made up of Inky, Dolly, and Val. Inky was born in the sixties, and was the newest addition to the group. Inky had been what was then called a Deathrocker and is now called Goth when Goth was just starting out. Right now she had a razor sharp black bob and chipping poison purple nail-polish. Her always creepy big, green eyes seemed to glow from underneath her inky black bangs, and it was her hair color that gave her her name. Inky had been born in Boston, but moved to New York at the age of fifteen. At eighteen, she read Anne Rice's _The Vampire Lestat_ and decided to move to New Orleans. On the Greyhound she met a girl who then had long, black and purple hair and silver-grey eyes. Her name was Isabel, but the rest of her gang called her Iz.

The second youngest of the group was Dolly. She had been born in 1902 in the Great Plains of Texas in what would become the Sand Bowl in a few years. She grew up when it was dry and her family was poor. When she was in her late teens she moved to Chicago and got wrapped up in the jazz and the booze of the roaring twenties as a flapper. She used to have a short blonde bob, but now her hair came down past her shoulders. She had a face like a china doll, all porcelain-skinned with ruby lips and blue eyes. Her face was so pretty, it seemed strange that a tongue of such impropriety should lie behind it. Isabel had found her, a nightclub singer in the speakeasies of Chicago, and had made Dolly a vampire, officially turning the then pair into a group.

The pair before that was made up of Isabel of course, and her first fledgling, Val. Her name was Valerie and she had worked as a serving girl in New Orleans when Isabel first arrived. Her mother had been from Haiti, though Val was born in New Orleans. Val had been a servant in the inn Isabel had first been staying in before she went to New Orleans. The inn was in the swampland of Louisiana, near New Orleans, and before Isabel left for the city itself she turned Val. She had seen in Val's mind the loss of her own baby, and Isabel didn't want to go to the new city in the New World alone. "Would you like to come to New Orleans," Isabel had said to Val, "where we shall never have to work again? I have money from my husband, damn him, enough to buy a fine apartment and live like queens." Valerie's husband, Isaac, had been taken by the same sickness that took her child, and agreed to go with Isabel, and to become a vampire when Isabel told her what she was. In those days they were just two broken women, trying to start over. It wasn't until the next century that they developed a rebellious nature.

In 1993 the gang had moved to New York City, where they lived like they had always lived: wild and free. They had bought their bikes then, to ride from New Orleans to New York. They were big street machines, not like the modified Triumphs the Lost Boys had which were good for riding on the beach. Recently they rode cross-country to Los Angeles to see the West Coast.

They strapped their motorcycles on top of the Diablo and rode through Big Sur at night and stayed in a roadside motel before continuing on to Santa Carla. At the end Inky asked "What are we gonna do afterwards?"

"I don't know. I don't like LA. It's too crowded and cheap. I want to go to San Francisco. We can stay in the Haight and do whatever," answered Isabel.

"Then what?" asked Dolly.

Iz looked at them all like they were crazy. "Woah, when did we start planning ahead so much? I don't know we're gonna do today. I don't know what we're gonna do the next day. That's how it's always been. What, you wanna call a god damn travel agent or something? Book a flight? What?"

"Nothin'," said Dolly.

They got on their bikes and rode to Santa Carla. The girls went wandering around the poorest neighborhoods to find an old house that was abandoned. They found one that had been foreclosed on and had boarded up windows. They went into the garage where they could curl up in blankets and sleep. They had fed before they arrived in Santa Carla; it was very dangerous to feed on another vampire's turf, especially David's. He was a good front man for Max's little coven; he had made himself a name in the vampire community along the west coast for his cruel defense system. He wouldn't even say anything to those who irked him; he just killed them. Sometimes his victims wouldn't even know it was him.

"Stay here," said Iz to the gang. "I'm going to visit him."

"You don't know where he is," said Inky.

"I know. That doesn't matter," said Iz.

"Oh," said Inky.

"I'm not going to call him with my mind," said Iz, knowing what Inky and the rest were thinking.

"Then what are you going to do?" asked Val, who was confused. The girls usually worked together. They had never had to deal with personal problems before.

As Isabel was about to speak, Dolly stood up. "We're coming with you," she said.

Isabel whipped around. She didn't take orders from—but then she saw Dolly's face. Dolly was tough and stubborn. She looked at Iz, her ruby red lips set in a firm line. That's what the girls were for. They looked after you even when you were too dumb to look after yourself. Isabel said nothing, but nodded.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14- Hello Dolly

David, Dwayne, Paul, and Marko woke up late the next night. As usual, David woke up first. He could hear the buzz of her brain, Isabel's brain. '_I don't know where he is David where are you I can't find you David what are you doing?_' It came all in one quick and blurry succession of words. In his mind he thought he could hear the lilt of her English and French accent. He saw her standing against the blurry backdrop of the Santa Carla boardwalk. She looked so lost. It was only in his head, from what he had caught from her brain, Isabel was strong and tough as nails. She would never look so afraid. She probably only felt afraid, maybe. Then he opened his eyes and it all went away.

That night Paul finished first. The other boys were still hunting. 'They probably got some,' thought Paul, 'except David. I swear he's crazy keeping that girl 'round as a pet. But whateva."

Then he felt something strange. He could tell there was something wrong with one of the girls who had just passed by. Not wrong as in upset but wrong as in _inhuman_. Then he saw her hanging by the alleyway. 'Hot' was his first thought and 'Shit!' was his second. Shit as in 'Shit! Another vampire!' He pulled her into the back of the alley in the shadows and bared his fangs at her. What were those words that David had told him to say if he ever ran into another coven? It was like 'how do you plead' except it was about being peaceful or not. "How do you plead?" he said, growling at the beautiful and deadly vampire.

She laughed. "You mean how do I come, stupid? You say 'How do you come?' and I either say 'In peace,' or I just attack you or whatever. 'Cause that's what you're supposed to say when another vampire is on your turf."

Paul just growled and gripped her neck harder.

"Hey, chill out. You're gonna bruise somethin'," said Dolly.

Paul growled again, his eyes glowing fully red and orange.

"Hey, listen, baby. I'm lookin' for David. That's it." Paul loosened his grip and looked at her, his grimace lessening. "David. Vampire leader guy? He around here anywhere? I need to see him. You know him?" asked Dolly.

Paul dropped her and she was standing up before she even hit the ground. "Yeah, I know him."

Dolly put her hands into her pockets and said "Cool. Take me to your leader," she added in an alien voice. Paul looked at her like she _was_ an alien. He wanted to laugh, but this could be the verge of an inter-coven war so he just pulled her over to his bike.

"Hey, no thanks," said Dolly, stepping back.

"You don't like bikes?" asked Paul.

"No. I just like to bring my own," she said going down the rack and unlocking her motorcycle.

"You ride with me or we don't go anywhere," said Paul. He didn't trust this girl.

She gave him a Death Stare. "No, I ride on my bike or I rip open your stomach and _you_ don't go anywhere and _I_ leave, get it?"

Paul grunted. "Stay close," he said.

They took the fast way, on the roads. He mentally messaged David and the gang that there was an invading vampire who he was bringing back to the cave. When they got to the Bluff, David had mentally drugged Evelyn to sleep and stashed her in her bed. Max was right. If he kept fiddling around with her mind she was going to go crazy. There's only so much mind-play a mortal psyche can take.

Paul yanked Dolly off her bike and they flew down the stairs at a dangerously impossible pace, for mortals, that is. David was standing on the edge of the fountain, his hands folded behind his back. Paul threw Dolly down before him and she looked at him with hatred. No one pushed her around. She felt like he was making her bow down. She stood up quickly, brushing off the dust easily.

She raised her chin and looked at David. "Someone's looking for you," she said smoothly.

"How do you come?" asked David, using the traditional phrase.

Dolly rolled her eyes. "In peace."

"Alright," David said, taking a step around the fountain's edge easily, stepping over a candle. "Who sent you?"

"Isabel Laroux," said Dolly, butchering the French pronunciation. David looked up sharply, taken aback. He looked to the rest of the Lost Boys, telling them to leave, and they did. You knew her as Isabel Sutherland, your wife, mother of your dead baby."

A fire lit in David's eyes as he came towards her, grabbing her round the head and neck. "Don't you dare," he said. "Don't you _dare_ speak of them!" There was suddenly a glint of protecting father in his eyes, which were turning orange.

"Will you speak to me, David?" asked Isabel, who was suddenly standing directly behind him. David stared at her. "Don't you recognize me, David? I think you should… you've been thinking about me lately." David didn't move. "Do you like what I've done with my hair? I know it's different," she said, mocking the tones of a modern-day husband and wife. "Dolly told me where you were." She threw a nod at Dolly and when David looked around at Dolly, she was gone, hovering with the rest of the girls in the trees near the Bluff, masking their presence from the boys.

"Isabel…" said David, unbelieving.

Isabel smiled a smile that was kind underneath the malicious overtures of her mannerisms. She clucked her tongue and said "David." Isabel stepped forward and put her hands on either side of his face. "David. Look at you! I like your hair," she whispered into his ear.

David couldn't believe it. Her hair was gone, but Isabel looked the same as she had when she had left all those years ago. "Isabel," he repeated, "but you left!"

"That was a hundred and fifty three years ago. I wanted to—" but then he pushed her away.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"I wanted to talk to you," she said. She was choking up. He could hear the tears in her voice.

"Talk," said David gruffly. How dare she torment him like this! She was breaking his heart all over again. But no matter, it was Evelyn's now, as much as he hated to admit it.

"I don't know," said Isabel quietly.

"Why did you go? I did everything you ever asked of me! Why wouldn't you—" David yelled at her.

"I don't know." Isabel had never felt so tiny. "I was afraid! I was hurt! After Henry died I hated you! I thought that…" Isabel was yelling now, but she couldn't finish her sentences.

"You left me alone with a dead baby to mourn and a new life to deal with!" yelled David.

"You should have gotten _her_ to teach you," said Isabel softly.

"You're still upset about that?"

"No, I wasn't but now I'm saying that at the time you weren't exactly _alone_!" But just as Isabel was in the heat of the argument they both heard the tiniest sound by the bed. Isabel hadn't seen it before, but now that Evelyn was holding the curtain back she could see into the makeshift bedroom.

"David? David, what's going on?" asked Evelyn. 'Who was this?' she thought, 'and how are they yelling so loud?'

Through all Isabel's toughness and anger she broke. She knew exactly who this was. This was David's new girlfriend and David didn't have any place for Isabel. "No one," whispered Isabel. "I'm nobody," she said louder, and she meant it in a way no one listening understood.

Isabel turned to go but David caught her arm. "You didn't speak to me for over a hundred years, not since the night you left."

"Just because I don't say anything doesn't mean I don't like you," said Isabel with the tone of a kindergarten school-girl. "I don't know what you want," and with that she left, running up the stairs into the woods.

She wouldn't cry. Not until they couldn't see her or hear her anymore. She picked up pace and ran right passed Dolly's bike straight into the woods. She ran and ran at vampire speed and collapsed over a big tree root. She cried there. She felt ridiculous for crying, but she was anyway.

In that moment when she saw Evelyn she understood everything. She had left. She saw the wholeness of David and how there was no place for her. She felt like nobody. She was nobody to David. She felt angry with herself. She was angry that she had left in the first place, and even angrier that she had come back.

The girls came and tried to comfort her. "He ha-ha-hates m-me," she sobbed. It didn't matter how old it was, a broken heart was a broken heart.

Dolly and Inky were a bit befuddled. They had never seen Iz, their leader, like this. They had never seen her so broken and they had no idea that David had meant so much to her. Val, who had known her longest, understood. This was more how they had been when they had first meant. Broken, but immortal, she had been trying to pick up the pieces and glue them back together any way she could. She had been mad at herself that she was the one who had broken them in the first place. "It never sto-sto-sto-sto-o-ops," she wailed. "It doesn't matter h-how long it's b-b-been, it ne-never s-s-stops. Not ever." Isabel rolled over and wiped her eyes. "It's just like the old days, remember, Val?" she asked. Inky and Dolly looked away. This was before their time. "Crying all the time…" Isabel muttered.

"It's good, don't worry. It's like they say, better out than in. Only when something has truly been broken, can it truly be mended," said Val. Isabel looked up at Val, no sure if she believed what her friend was saying. "C'mon. Let's get this one home," said Val to the others.

"I don't have home," said Isabel, in her depressed state.

That night Isabel got very drunk and killed three people, sloppily.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15- Enemy

Max was very angry. "What is this, David?" asked Max, pointing to the news on his home television set. "Trying to get back at me for making you turn your little pretty?"

"No. It's Isabel," said David.

"Who is _Isabel_?" asked Max.

"She hates me," said David. He didn't feel like telling Max about Isabel, and Henry, their baby, and Clementina, David's Italian mistress who turned out to be a vampire and turned David. It was all very complicated. "She's getting back at me."

"What did you do to her, David? You know, personally, I don't care what you did to her but _stop her immediately_. She's loose cannon we can't afford. She'll expose us all," ordered Max.

That night on the boardwalk David went looking for Isabel. He walked along the edge of the boardwalk while Evelyn waited at home, in the cave. She had gotten better at masking her thoughts, he couldn't hear anything.

"She doesn't know does she, David?" asked a voice behind him. He turned around and saw her.

"You!" he said.

"Me. I knew it. You haven't told her anything. You haven't told her about you, and you certainly haven't told her about me. It's not nice when guys don't tell their girlfriends that they're married," said Isabel.

"We're not married," asserted David.

"You're probably right. But we didn't get a divorce, either, did we? Really it's what we make it, being married or not," said Isabel.

"And who are you to be giving me relationship advice? What do you think you—" said David.

"Well, I know that she needs to know. It doesn't matter who I am!" Isabel was yelling now.

"Yes it does, you're a raving loon!" David yelled at her. "You killed three people last night," he whispered, "on my turf!"

"We're married, David. It's my turf, too."

"WE ARE NOT MARRIED AND IT IS NOT YOUR TURF! You need to—stop this before people start figuring out—see this is why you're a lunatic you said that—" but David didn't get to finish his sentence because at that point Isabel hurled him off the boardwalk with a swipe to the face and ran off. It was only when David was lying in the sand that he realized what had happened. She had screamed, grabbed his shirt (ripping it), and hit him, sending him over the railing.

Back at the cave David paced in front of everyone. "She's crazy."

"Who is she?" asked Evelyn.

"She wants to kill us all," muttered David.

Evelyn screeched in surprise. "Why?"

"It was her who killed those people—" David was saying but then he realized that Evelyn didn't know and stared at her staring at him. They were both shocked, but for different reasons. "I didn't mean…"

"I know exactly what you meant, David, now tell me what's going on right now! Who's killing people! What people!" she was almost crying.

"Calm, calm down," he told her and was about to use his mind powers again when he realized that it was time.

"No! I will not calm down until you TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT THIS SECOND!" she yelled.

"Okay," said David.

"Who's killing people? Is she really going to kill us? Who is she?" asked Evelyn.

"Before I tell you who she is, I need to explain something," he said, looking her directly into her eyes.

"What?" she asked.

"Well… I don't know how to begin but… she killed people… to drink their blood. It's what sustains her."

"What? She's a vampire. Oh my God, are we all going to be her victims? Is she going to drain us dry? Oh my God!" yelled Evelyn, grabbing at her neck.

"No. She won't drain us. She might drain you," David said and Evelyn squeaked, "but not us."

"Why not you? You're the one she has the problem with…" said Evelyn.

"Because… we're—" but once again, David couldn't finish his sentence.

"Oh my God," Evelyn whispered, "YOU'RE VAMPIRES TOO! YOU ARE ALL VAMPIRES! YOU'RE KILLERS! YOU'RE ALL KILLERS! ARE YOU GONNA KILL ME, TOO?" She was screaming and kicking and was about to get out of her chair, but David, who had been holding her hands gently, which were resting on either side of her, was now holding them down with a grip like steel. She started to scream. "LET ME GO LET ME GO LET ME GO LET ME GO LET ME GOOOOOO!"

"Shhh," was all David said. She screamed some more. "Quiet!" Evelyn was sitting in the old hotel chair, sure she was going to die. David was too close; they were all too close.

"Please," she sobbed.

"Shhh, you like vampires remember? Remember how mad you were when you found at the video store didn't carry any vampire movies? Remember? Remember Lestat and Louis and Dracula? Remember how you thought they were cool?"

"They are cool but they were never going to kill me!"

"I'm not gonna kill you. Shhh. I'm not gonna hurt you. Shh. Quiet now. Jesus Christ stop SCREAMING!" David was losing it. She wouldn't stop screaming and crying. She finally stopped, her scream dying into silent sobs.

David took her in his arms. To him, it was gentle, but to her, his iron strength was binding. She couldn't escape. She struggled but he just rested his head on her and rubbed her back. It would all be so normal if it wasn't for the fact that he had the strength of ten men and was a vampire and she was in his lair.

"How could I be so stupid?" asked Evelyn. "I'm such an idiot."

"No. No, you're not an idiot," David cooed at her, wiping away her tears. It would have been sweet if he wasn't a cold-blooded killer. "Vampires have mind powers. I made you forget. I'm sorry, I just wanted to avoid this."

Isabel sobbed harder, nearly collapsing. "Tell me everything. Everything you made me forget."

"I don't have to tell you. I'll just restore your memory… here," said David. "Calm yourself though. It'll upset you. Please?"

Suddenly it all came back. It unraveled, captured in David's perfect vampire memory, like a film through her mind. Every time he bit her and every little detail he had blurred in her mind was restored and clarified. "You bit me," she whispered. "Am I a vampire now," she asked, "or do I have to drink your blood?"

"No, you're not a vampire," said David gently.

"But you did bite me," she said.

"I did," said David, resigned to his fate.

"You bit me over and over and over and over and over again! You took a part of me that I didn't say you could take!" she said.

"Would you have let me if I asked?" asked David.

"Maybe!" yelled Evelyn and David was surprised. "But that's not the point! You're a vampire, David. You kill people. So, David, how often do you kill them anyhow? Is it like a monthly thing or a weekly thing or…"

"Every night," said David flatly.

Evelyn collapsed over onto a couch, crying. She remembered his vampire face. His devil's eyes and razor fangs and pointed face. She remembered her blood dripping down his chin. "You would have killed me too if I hadn't bitten you back," she said. David said nothing. Evelyn sat up. "You were! Admit it! That's why you followed me! You were going to kill me, David, and I was gonna be another missing person on your list!" David looked away. "Tell me why you brought me to that bench, David," she demanded. She thought about her Bowie knife. Where was it? It had been so long since she had it… she hadn't used it in forever.

David looked up at her, a condemned man. He looked into her eyes and said "I saw you on the pier and intended to kill you. I followed you to the museum and took you away where I was going to bite you and drain you." Evelyn lay back down again. "But I couldn't!" he said, wanting to mend the wounds of what she had made him admit to.

"You mean I stopped you," she said.

"No, I mean I wouldn't have even if you hadn't!" David hoped that this was true. He had no idea what he would have done. He had known so little then… now he could never, but then… who knew?

Evelyn shrieked and hit him on the shoulder. "What…?" he asked. "Shh," he said. He wanted to calm her down. He didn't like to see her so worked up.

"What, be quiet or you'll kill me?" she asked.

David thought this was a rhetorical question and said nothing. She interpreted his silence entirely the wrong way and beat at his shoulders lightly, like girls do when they are upset. He held her wrists easily and said "No! I told you I don't want to kill you!"

"But you will if you have to."

"No. I wouldn't. I couldn't. I hated lying to you but I was afraid you'd leave here."

"You mean you were afraid I wouldn't want to live in a _cave_ full of _vampires_."

David looked at her and she could see the pain in his eyes. "Please," he said. "Please."

She looked up at Paul, Dwayne, and Marko, standing motionless in the candlelight. "So, you're all vampires?" she asked.

"Yeah," said Paul.

"David made us," said Marko.

"He '_made_' you?" asked Evelyn.

"Yeah, he gave us all a drink from the bottle. It's filled with his blood," said Paul.

"Oh," said Evelyn.

"We're still nice, though," said Marko, smiling.

"I don't see any fangs…" she said.

"That's only when we vamp out," said Paul.

"Oh," said Evelyn.

"Wanna see?" asked Paul.

"No thanks. I'm still getting used to the idea. I know what happens. I already saw… David," she said.

David held her close. "I'm sorry," he whispered. She had never seen him like this. She didn't mind. She was learning tonight.

"What about you, Dwayne, quiet as ever? Even as a vampire?" Evelyn asked, looking at Dwayne, who maintained a stoic almost-silence.

"I was always a vampire, you just didn't know it," said Dwayne.

Evelyn wiped her eyes, starting to collect herself. "Oh, my make up must be all over the place," she said. She reached into her bag, which was near by, and pulled out an Emily The Strange compact shaped like Emily's kitty. She opened it and David opened his mouth to speak:

"Ah, Evelyn?" he asked.

"Hm?" she asked, turning the compact to see him, only to find herself staring at the back of the couch where David was sitting next to her.

"Yeah," said David. Evelyn finished wiping the black from under her eyes and shut the compact and put it back into her black velvet bag.

"Jesus, I'm so tired. I think I'm gonna go take a nap," said Evelyn, standing up and walking to her bed, sighing and moving her hair out of her face. She didn't even think about how she hadn't gotten her answers to the mystery of Isabel.

That morning David came up to the curtains, unsure if he was invited back to her bed. She looked up from the book she was reading and saw him. She looked at him and motioned him forward.

Evelyn wondered what David was going to do with her, if not kill her.

"I heard that," said David, but Evelyn didn't know what he meant, not being used to mind readers. "Max wants me to turn you," said David, and Evelyn understood.

"Oh, you read my mind," said Evelyn. "Wait, Max? Who's he?"

"The guy from the video store. He's the head vampire in Santa Carla."

"That guy?" asked Evelyn.

"What? He doesn't seem the type?" asked David.

"Well, no, but… I guess," said Evelyn, unsure. "Is that why he doesn't carry vampire films?" she asked suddenly.

"I think so," answered David.

"I think not having them is more suspicious that having them," said Evelyn, who was still a little put out by the lack of some of her favorite movies.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," said David. "Oh, crap, sleep now." David lay down on the bed, pulling the covers around him. "One bad thing about being a vampire: sunlight makes me very, very sleepy," he muttered, almost asleep. Evelyn stroked his hair and put her book down. She rolled over and went to sleep herself.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16- Waking Up

Evelyn woke up. It was five in the afternoon. The sun wouldn't fully set until seven or eight. David was dead asleep, and the boys had disappeared to wherever they slept. How had she never wondered where they went to sleep, and even more importantly how had she never wondered where they went at night when they left her alone? How had that been okay with her? The woman she knew herself as didn't take crap like that. Where had her sense been these past weeks? How had she wound up in a cave filled with vampires, never noticing a thing? The answer was always David and his tricks.

She stepped out of the cave and into the sunlight. She walked up the steps. She had so rarely been out in the sunlight for the past month; everything looked different. She looked at herself in the mirror of one of the boy's bikes. She looked so pale and drawn, probably from lack of sunlight and lack of blood. She walked over the rocks to the road that passed by. As she stepped onto the asphalt she realized what a long walk it would be to the boardwalk. That was good. She needed time to think, and she had always thought best while walking. The sun beat down on her bare shoulders. It was the first day of June today.

The road was empty. Good for thinking. Her long black skirt swirled around her and her boots made a clunking noise on the road. She had never liked the sunlight, but today it felt like she was finally waking up.

She thought about who she thought she was, or who she had been before she came to Santa Carla. She thought about herself that day on the pier. She had been an artist with a vengeance; a beautiful danger. She had always thought of herself as an attractive woman, and a tough one, too. She saw herself with her old friends and her old life. She had been a college student. She was 22 years old.

Now she lived in a cave and ate boardwalk food, pasta and other things that could be made by being put into boiling water, and microwave dinners. The boys had tapped into a landline for electricity and wired some through an extension cord into the cave. They couldn't use too much or the power company would know, but it was enough to cook a meal with. She used to be a painter, and she still painted, but all her pictures were of the boys. Her only friends were David, Marko, Paul, and Dwayne. How she loved them… but did she love them, or was that another piece of David? She spent most of her time on David's arm or on the back of his bike, or even with him in the cave engaging in one of their favorite activities.

Whenever Evelyn had a problem, she found that it was most effective to back to "square one" as they called it, meaning she would just think of who she was and what was going on before she had a problem, and then subtracting that from what was going on now, and then considering what came up as what needed to change. It was just like doing a redo.

The main difference was David. Even if she could go back to that dream state she'd been living in, she wouldn't. So, now the question was should she or should she not get rid of David. Should she return to school and go back onto the path she had planned out, or stay here and go the path she never even dreamed of.

Another burning question was if it was offered, would she take the bottle and be a vampire forever? Well, that depended on whether or not she wanted to stay with David forever. How could she decide such things now?

Produce trucks and hippie vans passed her by. Rebellious youth in Mustangs and high school children in Beamers and Volkswagens passed her by. Even racing at the deathly fast pace the boys rode their bikes at, the cave was still a long ride away. She wondered why she hadn't just taken her car. She hadn't even known where she was going.

At seven o'clock Evelyn arrived at her favorite strip of the boardwalk where she and the boys would hang out. She had rarely awoken during the day, preferring to wait until the boys were with her. It was amazing how different things were in the sunlight. Evelyn had never seen so many small children at the boardwalk. She watched as their mothers and fathers led them back to their cars to drive home for dinner. Where were her mother and father? How were they? All they knew was that she had taken some time off from college to paint in the coastal towns of California. What would they say if they knew she was living in a cave?

Evelyn entered a small independently-owned coffee house café. She ordered a caramel toffee cappuccino and cherry cinnamon bun. She dipped her pastry in her coffee and munched it thoughtfully, drowning in her thoughts. She couldn't help herself from thinking about the life she had sometimes dreamed up while lying awake in the Lost Boys' cave. The one where she and David were in their mid to late twenties, buying a small old apartment with roof access, or a little old Victorian house with claw foot bathtubs and a large attic. She would paint and David would do… whatever it was that David did. He was very intelligent, maybe he would be a writer. She would make him coffee and crepes, bake cookies, and have 2.2 children. They would never believe the stories about how their parents had been rebels, even though neither of them would be corporate drones or nine-to-fivers. Their children would grow up to be free and open-minded. Paul, Dwayne, and Marko could come and stay any time they wanted, and no one would tell them to turn the music down, or that they needed to "grow up". They'd be grown-ups on their own terms. She had dreamed of lazy, rainy afternoons and cozy winters. She had dreamed of a large library and a big closet where they could keep all of their funky clothes. Maybe the neighbors would complain about Evelyn's wild garden with its roses and wildflowers and herbs in no particular pattern, or better yet they'd have really cool neighbors whom they could have wine with in the evenings. Maybe the other Lost Boys would be their neighbors! They could have funky dinner parties with the local artists and musicians and thrive off their bohemian/punk/goth/who-knows lifestyle. They'd all grow up together and be happy.

But now Evelyn understood that couldn't be so. David would never grow up physically and there could be no lazy afternoons with him. He might kill the neighbors if they complained about the garden, and Evelyn would grow old, or commit to an eternity. She couldn't even begin to comprehend what an eternity was, what it felt like!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17- Abduction

Authors Note: I'm unsure how to describe Val's ethnicity. Calling someone "black" is frowned upon by some people, but she's of Haitian descent, not African so she's not African American. I can't describe her as Haitian because at the time it is mostly following Evelyn's point of view and I don't think Evelyn can identify the different African and Island cultures. I've gone with "black" because of a lack of a better term, but I'm struggling here so nobody flame me about it. I'm sorry if you find it offensive, but I was physically describing the other vampires and it is a characteristic that needed to be addressed so the reader could properly picture the story

Evelyn stepped out into the street. It was dark now and the boys would be wondering where she was. She'd wait for them by the carousel. She should have left a note. She knew she wanted to be with David, but there were so many things to work out now. As she walked through the crowded boardwalk she heard the angry cries of people and the roar of motorcycles. She turned to see if it was the Lost Boys, but the headlights were too bright. It must be them; only they behaved like that. She stepped near to the path of the motorcycles and they slowed down.

Then she saw who was on the bike in front. It was not her David, but the frightful Isabel grinning widely at her from atop the bike. Evelyn tried to look tough and hoped that Isabel and her crew would just pass her by, but Isabel had already put her boots on the ground.

"Hey there," said Isabel and grabbed Evelyn, sitting her roughly on the back of the bike before taking off at warp speed. Evelyn was almost jerked off the back of the bike but luckily stayed on, for if she fell off she would surely be run over by the others.

"What are you doing?" Evelyn yelled, but Isabel said nothing. Evelyn looked around for any way she could jump off the bike, but saw none. The four vampires were now riding in a tight diamond shape, with a blonde vampire and a black haired vampire flanking her, and a black vampire behind her. If she jumped and missed the others, she would surely be killed by the speed.

"Blindfold her, Val," said Isabel, and Evelyn was terrified when the vampire behind her accelerated to a dangerously close distance directly behind her, took both her hands off the bike's handles completely, reached into a pocket and pulled out a black strip of fabric, stood up, leaned forward, and tied the fabric around her eyes, all while riding a motorcycle that was pushing 100.

Evelyn couldn't see anything. The bikes had stopped and she was glued to the seat from the adrenaline from the fear of the vampires and the speed at which they had been going. Somebody wrenched her off and pushed her to walk inside. "What's wrong?" someone asked mockingly. "David never take you out on his bike?" David had taken her that fast sometimes, but she trusted David. She knew he was an expert rider and would never put her in danger. Actually, considering the new information she had recently learned, she wasn't sure about the latter part of that belief. "Walk!" the same voice ordered, and four hands grabbed her and veritably dragged her inside some building. Evelyn heard a garage door shut, and then the door that led into the house. She heard locks turning and keys jangling.

She was moved some more, and coming to her senses Evelyn struggled, but the vampires picked her right up off the floor and held her arms and legs together. Evelyn started to scream. "No one's gonna hear you," said one of the voices. "We're miles from anyone."

Evelyn was carried down some stairs and dumped on the cold cement floor of a basement. Someone ripped the blindfold off roughly, scratching her face, and Evelyn saw the four vampire women standing in front of her. "Why are you doing this?" gasped Evelyn.

Isabel just looked at her, then turned and walked up the stairs. Evelyn tried to stand up but the one with green eyes and black hair pushed her down, knocking her on her bum, and they all left her alone. Evelyn heard the sounds of many locks shutting. The only light had been coming from the door at the top of the stairs, and now Evelyn was alone in the dark. At least she hoped she was alone. Anything else in this place was probably sinister or dead.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18- Captivity

Evelyn could hear the vampires moving around above her. She could hear the thumping of boots as they walked across the floor. She heard a faint sound coming from nearby and jumped, but relaxed slightly when she realized it was a television. She crawled toward the noise and tentatively reached out her hand. It touched a cold long cylinder running up the side of the wall: a pipe. She put her ear to it and heard a Ford commercial. She sat there in the dark, listening to the dialogue of Numb3rs, and as the night wore on, the opening sounds of Jay Leno. She wondered if David thought that she had left him. She was terrified of him thinking that.

Some time later someone clunking by the door at the top of the staircase called down to her. "There's a light switch by the door!" Evelyn was excited by the thought of light, and crawled over towards the light filtering in from under the door. She felt the side of the stairs and felt her way along to the bottom. She walked up carefully to the top and felt for the fabled switch. She was happy when she felt the plastic under her fingers and flipped it. She couldn't help herself. She tried the door handle, but of course the door stayed fast shut from its many locks.

The room was mostly bare. They must be in an abandoned house, a ranch house if what she had said about no one being able to hear was true. There was what looked like a small couch covered in a sheet towards the corner, and some empty boxes stacked on the wall. Evelyn walked to the sheet and pulled it off, revealing a musty and stained loveseat. She considered curling up on it, but it was so disgusting she decided against it. The sheet was just as gross. She was cold and tired.

The locks slid out of place and the door opened. Isabel stepped down the staircase, holding a pile of blankets. The raven haired one peered in from the top of the stairs. She was creepily smiley. That reminded her of Marko.

"Stay there," Isabel said and walked back up the stairs. She reached her hands out and the raven haired vampire slid a mattress through the door. They pushed it down the stairs and it careened down, making a large _thump_ noise at the bottom. The blonde girl came down the stairs and threw some pillows onto the mattress.

"Who are you? What do you want?" asked Evelyn.

"Me? I'm Isabel. That's Inky," she said pointing to the girl with black hair, "Dolly," she said now gesturing towards the blonde girl, "and our other friend is Val."

"But what do you want?" asked Evelyn again.

Isabel opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. "We're going to keep you here. There's some stuff that needs to be said." Evelyn wondered if Isabel wanted to talk to her or was using her to bait David.

"Is David coming?" asked Evelyn.

Now the vampire looked truly displeased. "I have no idea what _David_ is doing." Evelyn looked away. "Make your bed." Isabel turned and left. Evelyn heard the locks go back into place.

Evelyn turned to the pile of pillows and sheets and began to make up the bed. She crawled under the covers and curled up, aware of the emptiness in her stomach. She fell into an uneasy sleep, wishing she had learned to sleep with one eye open.

She jumped when she heard the locks turn again some time later. She really wished she had her knife. She drew the thin blankets around her like the fabric could somehow protect her.

"Feeding time!" a voice called down as she opened the door. It was Isabel. Evelyn jumped and for a moment was paralyzed with fear. They were going to eat her. They were going to bite her and drain her dry and David would never know that she wanted to stay with him. After she had the thought, she realized it was true. She wanted to be with David. "But the question is, does David want you?" Isabel was at the bottom of the stairs, her big, black boots clunking on the floor. She, for some reason, was holding a pizza box and a lamp. "Relax," she said, seeing Evelyn's pale, frightened face, "feeding time for you. We got Dominoes." Isabel tossed the box onto the end of the mattress.

"We also thought," said the vampiress, looking around the room for an outlet, "that it would be easier if you had a light by you, instead of going up to the top of the stairs and having to find your way back down. You can't see in the dark, can you?" Isabel set the lamp down and bent over to plug it in. She turned it on and brought it towards them, setting it on the ground and looking at Evelyn. Evelyn had taken the pizza box and was now eating. It was a little cold, but she was grateful.

"I think you are the most considerate captors I've ever heard of," said Evelyn. "You still haven't told me why you brought me here." The vampire was silent so Evelyn continued onto another one of her questions, hoping the taciturn vampiress would feel inclined to answer one. "How do you know David, anyway?"

"He told you he's a vampire right?" asked Isabel. Evelyn nodded. "Good. Then he probably told you that we are, too." Evelyn nodded again, so Isabel continued. "Alright. Then maybe this will make more sense to you. We're married," Evelyn blanched, "or at least we were. I'm not sure what the law says about marriages made in the 1800's. Are they legally recognized or not? I honestly don't know our legal status, but we never got a divorce and neither of us is all the way dead. Whatever it is, we've been separated for a while. Last night was the first time I had seen him in 153 years. Here, I want to show you something," and Isabel ran up the stairs at an unbelievable speed and returned shortly. She was holding a small box. "Look," she said and opened the box.

Inside were a ring and a daguerreotype photograph. Isabel took out the ring. "This was my wedding ring," she said, "and this is us, David and me. See?" Evelyn took the box and looked at the photograph. There was Isabel. She had long hair pulled up into an elaborate hairstyle and a fancy wedding dress. There was David, standing with his hands on her shoulders, looking a bit younger. He was clean shaven and his hair was a bit longer, and it seemed to be a darker shade of blond. He was quite handsome. They both looked very grim in the photograph.

Then Isabel sat down and began to tell her story.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19- Missing Person

David awoke to an empty bed. He first looked around for her, but he couldn't feel her presence anywhere near him. Had she run away? Her stuff was still there. He looked outside and sure enough, her car was parked. He ran out on the bluff, whirling around, trying to catch some glimpse of her sent, trying to see where she had gone. The boys were standing behind him, having flown up there. "To the boardwalk," he said.

David rode fast to the boardwalk. It was quicker to ride along the beach, so they took the road through the forest that went down to the sand after the beach was not so rocky. They ripped through Santa Carla and rode straight down the boardwalk itself. She wasn't anywhere. Where did she like to go? She liked the coffee shop and the bookstore. She liked movies but if she was running from David she wouldn't be likely to go to the head vampire. How could he have let her go? Max would be so angry.

"Check everywhere," David said to the boys. "Dwayne, scour the beach. Paul, check those little stores she likes. Manic Panic and Moda and them. Marko, check the main part of town. Start with the movie theater and check the bars and clubs. I'm going to check the bookstore and the restaurants she liked."

The bookstore was closest so David started there. He stepped in and the line of cashiers turned to look at him. He turned away and scanned the store. He sniffed the air to see if he could smell her and her perfume. She mixed it herself, pomegranate and sandalwood. She wasn't in the café so he walked through the middle part of the store where he could see into all the aisles. "Can I help you?" asked a young man.

"No," said David, and the man stood there as David walked and searched. She wasn't in Literature, Horror, Sci-Fi, Art, or Occult. She wasn't in here; he couldn't feel her.

Next he walked into IHOP. "I'm looking for someone," he said to the hostess as she tried to stop him as he breezed on by. It only took a quick look to see she wasn't there either.

Next he headed to the coffee shop. As he walked in he smelled the strong smell of coffee. He walked over to the chairs alone the edge of the room. He saw a high winged chair, the kind she liked, with its back to him, but as he walked around to the other side he saw it was empty. There was a dent in the seat like someone had been sitting there. Then he smelled it. That distinct smell that only she had, mixed with her customized perfume. She had been here. He walked up to the barista and asked if he had seen a woman, a bit shorter than him, his age, with reddish brown hair. "In black?" the woman asked.

David nodded.

"Uh, she was here. Why?" the barista asked.

"Do you know where she went?" asked David.

"She left," she said, "not too long ago." David's face remained inquisitive so she said "Uh, that way," making a gesture towards the side of the street she had though the woman had left. "Not sure though. I wasn't really watching."

David left and stepped outside. The cold ocean wind had whipped her scent clear away. _She was here_, David messaged the Boys, showing them where he was. _She's not anymore. Search the boardwalk. I'll check the path to the cave._

David got onto his bike and rode away, searching for Evelyn. He had to find her. If he didn't find her, and Max had found out she had skipped, that would constitute as a rejection of the offer he hadn't even made yet, and would kill her. He flew away from the boardwalk, trying to retrace the path she would have taken from the boardwalk to the cave. He rode quickly across the roads and country paths. Where would she be? There was an endless stretch of coastline, and beyond that forest and hills and the desert. There were innumerable caves she could sleep in, and even more small costal towns she could hide in. He wondered if he would search every one if he didn't find her, if he would have to sacrifice The Lost Boys for her, and even if he found her if she would still want to be with him after all this. She hadn't seemed that upset…

He had to find her, before Max found out, and before Isabel found her.

Isabel. A nagging suspicion lay in the back of David's mind, but he didn't want to address it. He was worried that Isabel had taken her, or killed her. He was immensely perplexed by Isabel's behavior. She had left him. She had returned out of the blue. She was demanding his attention. Why?

David arrived at the cave, but he knew before he went down there that there was no one inside. He could hear no heartbeat coming from within. He ran around and around as if she were hiding someplace. He ripped off the bed sheets as if she had been stealing away between them. He ran his hand along the place she slept and sniffed it, remembering _exactly_ what she smelled like. _Where was she?_ He left the cave and took another route back to the boardwalk.

When the boys returned home that night, David felt helpless. He was hungry, and he knew the boys were to. "Feed," he said and motioned for them to leave. They looked at him strangely. David looked up. "Go," he said, and they left in a flutter of wings.

David was starving, but he had no will to hunt. He ran his hands over his beard, up his cheeks, and through his hair, sighing. He needed to plan, but he had no leads. His mind which was so apt at plotting had hit a dead end. He knew that he was here, and Evelyn was missing. He knew that she might have left because she was afraid and angry, but she also could have gone into town for something and been taken. He knew that Isabel had come into town.

He needed to see Isabel to see if the she-devil and her demons had a hand in this, but where was Isabel? He tried the mental link (as reluctant as he was to do so) and came up against a mental version of cold, hard steel. It seemed after speaking to each other, both of their minds had become more adept at blocking the other's mind out. _Isabel_ he sent her. He could sense the boys' curiosity. He wondered if they could hear him, or if they just knew he wasn't speaking to him.

The Boys returned and looked at him. "You're not hungry?" asked Paul. He couldn't comprehend David's behavior. "She'll come back. If she doesn't she's crazy," he said, trying to be comforting. To spite all their connection through the blood, Paul had no idea what this was about. David's face remained stoic, and Paul chewed his lip.

"She'll at least come back for her stuff," said Dwayne, and immediately wished he could take it back. David looked at him sharply, and Dwayne wondered if David was going to yell at him. David never yelled at any of him, but David had been doing a lot of things lately that David never did. But then Dwayne saw that it was hurt in David's eyes, behind the fire, which was duller than usual.

Dwayne had made it sound like that was all she would want.

"It doesn't matter," said David. "She would know to come during the day. We'd all wake up and her stuff would be gone." David's voice was quiet, as usual, but there was a new tone of defeat.

David thought about some way of communicating with her. Her cell phone! Of course! Oh, what an ancient he was in compared to these modern times! He hadn't even thought of her cell phone, or his, for that matter. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He flipped it open and dialed her number, walking out to the opening of the cave. He remembered it exactly, without an address book. There weren't a lot of numbers he needed to call.

The phone rang.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20- The Vampire Speaks

"I honestly don't know where to begin," said Isabel, sighing. "I guess it's just the story of my life I'm about to tell you. I was born in 1835 in England. My grandparents had fled France during the revolution. It was strange for a French family to be in England. My mother and father were married by arrangement of their parents. My grandparents each wanted my parents to marry a French man or woman, to keep us a French family. They hoped that one day we would return to France. They wanted to, after some of the turmoil following the revolution, but they were too old by then and were living with my parents' on their estate, where they died. My parents had been raised French in England, but wanted me to be a proper English lady of rank.

"When I came into my season, that is the time when I was considered by a series of men for marriage, David was one of my suitors. He was a sly man, or boy, as he was seventeen when I met him. He took my hand once, in his garden, and said he wanted to show me something. His mother, who was chaperoning us, had stepped away from us for just a moment to direct some servants about supper that evening. I had no idea what he was talking about. He had my hand and quietly ran, with me behind him, through some flower beds and behind some bushes. We ran a ways away to a secluded area with a fountain and a bench, where he proceeded to kiss me in a manner I had never been kissed before." Isabel's speech had lost its tough girl tone and morphed into a faded English (and possibly French) accent. Her pattern of speech had changed; it now sounded more old-fashioned. She wasn't looking at Evelyn anymore but at the wall, her gaze very far away. Evelyn realized that she, too, could see the English garden, and smell the flowers, and hear a blackbird sing.

"I can see it," Evelyn said.

Isabel stopped speaking and looked at Evelyn. The garden faded, and so did the smell of flowers and the sound of birds. "I suppose you can. I just fell back into my memories; I must have started sending them to you."

"They were nice," said Evelyn. "Please, don't stop."

Isabel snorted. "Just you wait. They won't be so nice in a bit. Here," she said, and looked deep into Evelyn's eyes. "Lie back." Evelyn lay back on the mattress. She closed her eyes. She could now see the garden again. She heard David's mother's voice calling for him. Then Isabel's voice continued, narrating the memory. "I had only been kissed once before, by a handsome stable hand named Benjamin. David pulled away, and stroked my hair. He smiled at me. 'You're a beauty,' he said. 'A priceless beauty.'" Evelyn could hear the tones of David's voice as it had sounded then, over Isabel's. It was higher pitched, less gravelly, and certainly more carefree. "He told me that we had better go before his mother suffered a stroke. He put his hand on my back to guide me, and as we walked it trailed down." Evelyn could see the hand, tanner, on the white Victorian dress. "There was a part of me which desperately wanted him to touch my bum. As soon as I thought that I felt terribly guilty and confused. They do a good job these days of explaining lust to young people. Back then it was all procreation. You were supposed to 'Lie back and think of England'. I'll tell you, I certainly wasn't thinking of England then. Then his mother came and he had his arm in a crook around mine, as proper ladies and gentlemen did back then. 'I was showing her the fountain, Mother,' he said. She seemed distressed, but wasn't going to press the issue in front of company. I almost burst something trying not to laugh. At the end of our little 'date', as I stepped into the carriage, he pulled a leafy twig from my hair, and handed it to me. 'A souvenir for my lady,' he said, and the carriage door shut. I looked at him as we pulled away and he walked back into the house. It was at that point where I became terribly embarrassed and ashamed again, but through my shame and confusion, I held the twig, and there was a part of me that smiled. I swear, I giggled all the way home.

"That night I lay in my bed, and pressed my lips together to keep from making a sound. I felt sure that if I opened them a sound of pure joy at being 'his lady' would escape my lips and everyone would come running, and surely with them all in my room questioning me I would confess to my sins of impropriety. 'He's the devil,' I whispered to myself, 'purely a devil,' but I knew that I wished he was there with me. I had never known that touching could be so pleasant. None of my other suitors had touched me like _that_.

"The next time I saw him was at a ball. I desperately wanted to ask my mother if David would be there, but I feared that she would somehow sense what I had done. I lived in fear of anyone finding out, but I also really, really wanted to do it again. I didn't know he was there until I passed a group of girls cooing over him. He was surely the most handsome lord-to-be there. I wanted to tell them all how he had called me his lady. I wanted to tell them he liked me best. I hoped he liked me best. I looked around for him, and as I was turning I felt him tap my shoulder. 'Hello, my lady. Would you care to _dance_,' he asked. He said dance funny, like he was speaking to me in some kind of code and wasn't asking me to waltz. I parted my lips. I was in that sort of lustful shock that you get when your mouth and brain stop working and your legs turn to jelly. I really wasn't sure I was _capable_ of waltzing at that moment. I managed to nod. As we danced he looked at the other girls who had been cooing to me and whispered 'Look at those sour faces.' 'They like you,' I said. I wanted to know if he liked them. 'You, my dear, are much prettier, and more of a lady,' being a lady was very important back then, 'and I like you better, anyway,' and then he slid his hand down and pinched my bum, right in front of them. They made the strangest sound I had ever heard! Sort of a gasp and a shriek and a laugh and a cry all at once," Evelyn could hear them. They sounded like a group of disturbed and dickering birds. "I twitched my hips, which is very hard to do in a corset, to shake him off. If David decided he didn't want me I couldn't be seen in such an improper state. I'd be damaged goods and never get married! Marriage was the goal back then, see. If I did get married, I'd have to marry a really old, rich guy with kids all older than me. 'You're a devil,' I said to him, and he just smiled. 'Do you like devils?' he asked me. I had no idea how to respond. I said nothing and in my silence he just laughed at me. I must have looked surprised so he said 'Your face.' I was worried he thought I was ugly, making that face. Everything always showed up on my face, and he could read it perfectly. 'A beauty,' he whispered again, 'a priceless beauty. You are… a dewy… rose…blossoming,' he said very slowly." Evelyn laughed. Isabel broke out of her reverie and the sound of the waltz disappeared in Evelyn's head, along with the dresses and the noblemen and David. "What?"

"I've just never heard David talk like that, is all," said Evelyn

"That's just the way we talked back then, and the way he was speaking, was very raunchy. No one had ever said such things to me. I told him so. 'Such things you say,' I said. He only smiled. To me he seemed dark and mysterious. He still is. When the dance was over he bowed to me and slunk off into the crowd. I was left alone, and felt awkward in his absence. He walked straight through the group of cooing girls and they dispersed with awe. I didn't even know—wasn't even thinking—but I knew I wanted to be in his presence again, so I followed him. The girls, too, parted for me, and I walked after him, hiding behind columns and archways, as he excused himself through the rooms. He went up some stairs, taking a drink of brandy from the tray of a waiter. I hid in an archway and watched him go down the hall which overlooked the ballroom, where most of the party-goers were. I watched him stand with his back half to me, and half to the wall behind us. I decided it was silly that I should be so moved by his comings and goings and that I should like to entrance him as he had entranced me. I thought of being mysterious. I walked up to him, trying to make my steps quiet against the tile floor. He turned from a bit away, and saw me coming towards him, smiling. I must have surprised him, because for a moment a look of surprise came across his face. Then he smiled and leaned against the railing and took a sip of his drink. I said nothing, thinking _mysterious_. He raised his eyebrow at me, something he was very good at doing, by the way, and I raised mine back at him. I was determined for him to speak first. He made a small bow and said 'I am at your service,' which was, back then, his polite way of asking me what I wanted. 'Good,' I said. He looked surprised again. I turned and walked into a quiet parlor, where no one was, and turned and looked at him. He was following behind me, I hoped like a puppy dog. I thought of what he had done to me, and how to get him to kiss me again. I raised a single finger and brushed a lock of hair away from his eyes. He stepped forward and kissed me again. I was so pleased with myself. He had done just what I had wanted him to. I have no idea how long we were in there. We broke a vase, actually, and ran away giggling. In the quiet on the stairs I asked him what he was going to do. He gave me a look. I told him I liked him, and that I would be pleased to see him come forward to my parents with a proposal of marriage. It was strange, hearing my formal, practiced speech intermingled with my blatant statement of feeling.

"And so he did, and next June we were married. For a bit it was blissful. I found I very much enjoyed 'lying back and thinking of England'. I soon found myself pregnant, and mid April a baby boy was born. Henry," Isabel pronounced the name as if it were foreign, "he was called. That summer was blissful. I was married, I had a provided a son for my husband, all was well. I would sit with the ladies and have tea in the garden and David would play polo and hunt with the other gentlemen. His father died, and we became the Lord and Lady of the land. When the winter set in, Henry came down with a cold. In late December, he developed a terrible cough in his lungs, which developed into a fever over January. By early February, my child, my baby boy, was dead.

"One thing I had learned about David in our few months of marriage was that he got sick often. It seemed he got a cold every few weeks, or caught anything which was going around. During the winter he always had a handkerchief with him, dabbing at his nose. A weak immune system is what they would say today. I remember Henry's funeral. I had never seen such a tiny coffin. I also remember how David had to be dragged from his sickbed that day, to attend. There was a terrible emptiness in my heart, and in that emptiness was planted a seed of hatred towards David. I saw his weak immune system, and I saw how his son had died of sickness. I blamed him for his weak genes. It was a slow hatred. I ate with him, I slept in the same bed as him, I watched him at polo games that summer as always. My distaste for him grew. He annoyed me, his very presence aggravated me. Any little thing could be turned into a shouting match. My distaste for him blossomed into hatred. I wanted to slap him until he bled from his face. I remember sitting at the dinner table, thinking about plunging a steak knife right through his heart. I thought about killing him in his sleep.

"It had been several months since I started refusing to perform any act in that bed except sleep and think of terrible things to do to David. Now, a man is a man, and he can only go so long without physical love, and that combined with the practices of the day motivated him to take a mistress, Clementina. Clementina was an Italian Duchess who had taken a liking to David at some of the balls. He would go off on 'hunting trips' to his lodge hunt by day and carry on with her at night. When I found out I said nothing to him. I never said anything to him about what was really bothering me. It hurt. Taking mistresses was not an uncommon practice in that day, but it was just another sign of our failing marriage.

"It was now September of 1853 and he was 20 and I was 18. Also, what neither of us knew about Clementina was that Clementina was a vampire. I suppose one night she decided that she liked David enough and turned him. He came back from his hunting trip early, one night. I was sitting on our bed when he came in, brushing my hair and plotting his demise, a demise which would hopefully include the discomfort if not death of the fabled Clementina. He came in and confessed that his infidelities to me. He apologized, and then proceeded to tell me an interesting tale. He said that Clementina was a vampiress, and that she had turned him and asked him to stay with her as a creature of the night—those were the words he used. You can see how ridiculous this Clementina was—but that he had escaped. I still don't know why he did. Maybe he was afraid, or he truly did like me best. I stopped brushing my hair. 'You're mad,' I said. 'You are a madman, David, and I hate you.' I told him this very plainly, with little emotion. He was used to me declaring my hatred for him. 'I'm not mad, I'm serious. Watch!' he said and flew right up to the ceiling. 'See?' he said. 'She's a vampire, and I'm a vampire now too! I can fly and move faster than anything and see in the dark! Oh, Isabel, I'm a killer now.' He said this fearfully, and I suppose at that point he was afraid.

"His saying he was a killer _now_ just set me off. 'You were always a killer!' I shrieked. 'You killed Henry! You killed him with your sickness, and bad blood! You are a killer now and a killer then and I hate you, David! I hate you! You might as well as have killed me too, because I'm stuck with you now! And look! Look what you've gotten yourself into with your idiocy. You're a vampire now and you come to me, asking for—asking for—what do you want from me?' I screamed at him. He was very confused now. I think he was crying. He told me he didn't' know. When dawn came he slept, and I wept. The next night he awoke and I was sitting there. 'I told them that you are sick,' I told him calmly. 'They'll stay away… for now. They will find out what you are, David, and when they do they will kill you. You will die, David, and you will deserve it.' I glared at him. I hated him. 'No, they won't,' he said. 'I'm leaving. I know they'll come after me so I'm leaving here. I must,' he said," just as Evelyn was looking at David's face through Isabel's eyes, Inky came down the stairs, her eyes a little too wide as usual, holding up Evelyn's ringing phone.

"It's David. What should we do, Iz?" asked Inky.

Isabel paused. "Answer it," she said.

Inky flipped the cell phone open. "Hello?"

Evelyn heard a voice come through the phone, but couldn't understand it.

"Here, here," whispered Isabel as she motioned Inky to come closer and met her at the bottom of the stairs.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21- Contact

"Evelyn?" asked David. The voice hadn't sounded like Evelyn's.

There was some whispering and movement in the background on the other end. "Who's calling, please?" asked the voice which was definitely not Evelyn in a singsong and vaguely mocking tone.

"Who is this? Wh—" David started to say when a loud noise on the other end stopped him.

_Stomp._ "I ask the questions! This is my show, here!" said Inky.

David had no idea what to say. He was obviously talking to a crazy person. He heard more whispering in the background, along with laughter. "Shh, stop it, he's gonna think you're a whack job!" a voice said. "No, no, give it here," said another. David said nothing. He was a doer, not a talker. If he had something to tell you, he would show you. He didn't like phones.

"You're looking for your little _giiirlfrieend_, aren't ya?" a different voice asked.

"What are—" David said.

"Shush! Just hush your little mouth. Shut it. She's… well, I don't know if I want to tell you—what should I tell him?" it whispered to someone else.

More voices came through the phone, but David could only catch some of it. "Tell 'em she's comfy… the mattress! The mattress! Gave… fine… safe, well, _mostly_… kinda pissed off… who? Wait… tell… ha! Like… oh—" said various whispering female voices.

"We have her. We stole her. She's fine, though," said the first voice.

"Is Isabel doing this?" asked David.

"Isabel—he wants to know about Iz—good question," there was a pause, then some clicking.

"I'm right here," said Isabel's voice through the tinny cell phone.

"Isabel! Why are you doing this? You—" David growled.

"I'm telling her everything, David."

David sighed. "Isabel, there's no need for this. What—what are you hoping will come out of this!"

Isabel said nothing.

"Isabel!" David growled into the phone.

"I—goodbye, David," she said and David heard the _beep_ as the phone connection ended.

David walked back into the cave. "It's Isabel," he said plainly.

"Where is she?" asked Marko.

David sighed, putting his hands in his pockets. He walked around the fountain, looking towards the ground. "With them, probably."

"Where are they?" asked Paul. Over the weeks she had spent with them, they had all gotten to know her. She didn't participate in the big conversations with everyone that much, just putting in a word here and a joke there, but they had each had several one-on-one conversations, where she opened up completely. Even though the strange circumstances prevented them from getting too close because they had to keep her in the dark about what they were, they could already feel her absence. They had been looking forward to _really_ getting to know her, now that she knew the truth.

David looked at Paul, then turned away. He clucked his tongue. "Ya think they told me?" he asked. "They kidnapped her, they're not gonna provide directions on where to find her."

"She's okay though… right?" asked Marko.

"As far as I can tell. I didn't talk to her. They _said_ she was okay," David answered. "I'm looking for her tomorrow," he said flatly.

"Where could you possibly look?" asked Dwayne.

"Yeah, could you hear anything? The city? The ocean? I mean, how will you know?" asked Paul.

"I—I don't know," admitted David. "I was thinking…I'd check the hotels first. Maybe they killed a family and moved into their home. I… I need to talk to Max." David was unwilling to admit that he needed the older vampire's advice. They checked in every once in a while. Max would send them a little message through the mental link all vampires shared. "Tomorrow," said David, and went towards the bed. He touched the sheets he had mussed looking for her, and realized there was no point sleeping in a bed alone. He walked back to the passage with the boys and hung from the crossbar. He felt so lonely. He was glad he had his friends around him. As he was about to fall asleep his eyes popped open. "I'll sleep in the main cave and wait for her," he said. The boys understood. He meant if Evelyn escapes or comes back or anything. She had never been in where the boys slept; she wouldn't know where to find them.

The next night David started stomping the streets of Santa Carla. He scanned the minds of the whole city for the vampire wavelength. Vampire's minds were different from human's minds. He went into the tourist part and went by the hotels. He didn't find anything. He saw the boys at the boardwalk.

"We can't just sit here while you tear yourself apart over this, man," said Paul.

David said nothing.

"What are you gonna do when you find her?" asked Dwayne.

"Yeah," said Marko, "are you gonna just kill her or will she be one of us?"

"Yeah," said Paul, "what are ya gonna do?"

David blew out the smoke of the cigarette he was smoking and looked up.

"We'll help you find her if you wanna make her one of us. I mean, she's as good as one of us, now, right?" asked Paul. They had all kept their distance, but Evelyn had been a potential sister for them. They only hung out with each other, and they liked new friends to play with.

David said nothing at first. "Okay," said David. "Spread out. Search the minds. Try and find anyone who's seen any of them."

David walked off towards the industrial part of Santa Carla.

Marko was walking through the slums. Most of the shops on the street he was one were boarded up, and no one was out. The dilapidated and abandoned buildings would be perfect for the hiding vampires. He heard a _snick_ that sounded like someone opening a knife and he whirled around. He heard a _click_ then a following _click_ and finally the _swoosh_ of a lighter flame. He saw the small light in the alley he had just passed and walked towards it.

The small ember on the end of the cigarette grew brighter as the woman sucked in. Marko saw it was not a woman at all, but a vampire woman. She must be one of Isabel's cohorts. Marko stepped into the mouth of the alley, and the vampire stepped foreword so half her pale face was in the blue neon glow of a nearby bar. She had inky black hair cut into a sharp bob. She had a black shirt on which didn't really fit her and a plain black skirt with some lace on it. Underneath that she had black tights with white cartoon skulls and giant platform boots. She had a quarter sleeve of tattoos on her thin right arm of thorny vines and pointy castles. She took another drag on her cigarette and the glitter on the childish foam bat barrette clips in her hair shined.

"You're one of Isabel's," said Marko, worried.

"Yeah, I know Iz," said the woman. She blew out smoke and leaned against a dumpster, her big eyes a creepy green and her smile offsetting.

"Who are you?" asked Marko.

"Inky."

Marko mentally messaged the others. "Did Isabel send you?"

"Not really."

"Then what are you doing out?"

"You were looking for us, weren't you?" she asked.

"Yeah, but shouldn't you be, like, hiding?" asked Marko, and then the rest of the boys descended down upon Inky.

Paul grabbed her and she threw him off. "Hey, hey, hey!" yelled Inky. David, who had arrived last because he had been farthest, ran into her like a bulldozer. "Four on one sucks!" she grunted, pulling out a knife.

"Where is she," said David. He was whispering but to Inky it had the intensity of yelling. David dug his nails into her neck and back and she cried out. She freed her arm and plunged the knife into David's neck, through his jugular and into the trachea. David cried out in a sick gurgling scream and Marko caught him as he stumbled back. Dwayne ran foreword, but Inky had already vanished.

David made more noises that could only be described as _squishy_ as he pulled the knife out. "Ah!" he gargled, putting his hands on his neck like a choking victim and trying to swallow the blood that was coming up, but the blood he was choking on made that impossible. He wanted to lose as little blood as possible, but he wasn't in control anymore. He was on his hands and knees and spitting out blood. "What…wha—" he gasped, looking around for his attacker.

"She's gone," said Dwayne. David's confusion flickered as his anger took over. "Damnit!" he yelled as he pounded a hole in the concrete of the alley with his fist. Already the bleeding had stopped.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22- Night No. 2

"I—Goodbye, David," said Isabel, and she clicked the phone shut. Evelyn looked up at Isabel, expecting some sort of explanation. Just a moment ago Isabel had been telling Evelyn her life story, but now her gaze was cold. "Goodnight, Evelyn. You've been good, tonight. Rest up. I'll most likely kill you tomorrow evening."

Evelyn made a squeaky sound and Isabel clumped up the stairs in her heavy boots. Val looked at Evelyn in the same way Isabel had, and then went up after her. Dolly was leaning on the railing of the stairs and gave Evelyn a big smile, her red lips revealing a set of white teeth. Though those teeth were rounded squares now, Evelyn knew that they could be razor sharp within seconds. She wasn't really sure if Dolly's smile was friendly or predatory. Inky stayed behind and looked at Evelyn, looking thoughtful. She sort of half skipped half walked over to Evelyn and plopped down on the bed.

"Is she going to kill me?" asked Evelyn quietly, trying not to blink. She knew if she blinked that she would cry.

Inky said nothing. Her creepy grin was gone, and her freaky big, green eyes blinked at Evelyn.

Evelyn looked up at Inky to prompt an answer. Inky looked away, not knowing what to say. The tear, rebelling against Evelyn who wanted it to stop, slithered down Evelyn's cheek. Evelyn knew the fight against crying was lost and blinked freely now, the tears streaming down silently. She refused to acknowledge them, to wipe them away. "I wish David were here," she whispered quietly. She hadn't even realized she was going to speak it until it was spoken.

Inky didn't know what to do. She was a curious cat and had wanted to get to know Evelyn before Isabel decided her fate, and had been hoping for a chance to talk with her. Inky clicked her boots together and wrung her hands like she did when she was nervous. She also clicked the barbell running through her tongue around in her mouth. There was a part of Inky that wanted to hold Evelyn like she would her sisters, but in a night's time Inky might be making a meal out of Evelyn so she decided against it. She was a vampire, but she didn't eat her friends, so consequently, she didn't befriend her food. "That makes sense," was all Inky could say.

Evelyn, still trying to ignore her tears defiantly, asked "What did he say? Just now… did he ask about me?"

Inky let out a short noise of laughter, and then immediately wished she hadn't when she saw the look of hurt on Evelyn's face. Vampire she may be, but she was still as socially awkward as when she was in Junior High. "Oh… I'm sorry—I didn't mean to…" Inky just let the words die in her mouth. "Of _course_ he asked about you. Why else was he calling?"

"I don't know."

"He said… well, nothing really, we didn't let him. Nothing… nothing… uh, he wanted to know who had taken you. So he knows it's us now. He'll probably come looking for you."

"Will he find me?" asked Evelyn.

Now Inky laughed freely. "I really don't think that's the thing you ask your kidnapper."

"I—I still don't understand why I'm here," asked Evelyn.

Inky looked away again. By now she had gotten used to just going with it. She was used to spontaneous, inexplicable behavior. It was all in the routine, man. Go with the flow. They had never done a kidnapping before, though. This one time they ripped this hitchhiker off the side of the road and pulled him into the car. They teased him, drained him dry, and chucked him off the interstate.

"So are you, like, my guard?" asked Evelyn.

"Nah, I just wanted to talk to you. I gotta go to bed now. Sun's comin' up," and with that Inky got up and did that sort of bouncy, skippy, walking thing she did and as Evelyn watched her she laughed to herself. Under different circumstances, she would have liked to meet Inky.

Inky locked the door behind her.

Evelyn laid back onto the mattress and another wave of fear swept over her. She was thinking about her mother and her father and the rest of her family. She longed for David to come and rescue her. Sometimes when Evelyn was really scared, she would put her own imaginative spin on reality. She daydreamed that she was a Rapunzel type maiden, sitting up in her tower. She pictured herself in a beautiful dress, all black taffeta and silk, sitting dreamily by the window. She dreamed of four witches who held her captive, and they were witches even if they weren't so bad. She dreamed of sitting, staring at the moon, and David would come to the castle gates, and break through the castle wall, go past the goblin city, broken down the door, and fought his way past the evil witches to the highest room in the tallest tower, and maybe just fly away with her, white horses be damned. Unfortunately, she was in a basement, not a tower, in cotton, not taffeta, and David was a vampire, not a knight or a prince or a hero. "David," she moaned. "Please." She was never the kind of girl who longed for some boy to come and rescue her, but now she really needed rescuing! She couldn't think of any way to escape.

Evelyn slept clear on till four once she finally fell asleep. When she woke up she felt sick with fear. She got up and looked around the room, but there was nothing very useful. She saw the wooden box and thought 'I can break that and make a stake,' but she had to wait for the right moment. If they saw the broken box they would surely be suspicious, and she couldn't take all four of them at once. She also wasn't sure she had the strength to drive one of those things through one of their hearts. She was opposed to killing anything, killers like vampires included. She had a good, hard cry and fell back asleep.

She awoke the sound of the ladies moving upstairs. She heard the start of a car, and realized they must have one, too, as well as the bikes. She had heard some yelling earlier, but it was only the girls yelling at each other. She imagined walking upstairs and finding the corpses of their victims lying around, maybe stacked in a closet. Maybe they cut them up into pieces to put into boxes and throw them in the ocean, maybe they—Evelyn had to stop herself, or her fearful thoughts would surely drive her insane.

Later that night she heard a dragging sound and quite a bit of thumping around. She could only imagine what they were doing.

Evelyn considered writing some sort of last minute story of her life, or some sort of note to David, or her parents. There was nothing to write on or write with.

Every time something passed by the door to the basement, Evelyn felt a wave of terror, fearing it would be Isabel coming down to murder her.

Evelyn considered converting to some sort of organized religion. Was it okay to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and still not believe in God? She was about to die, she might as well take preventative measures. Then she realized how fake that was and was disgusted with herself.

She wished she had a knife. Or a gun. Should she try her luck with the stake?

She was really hungry. She didn't want to die hungry.

She heard them leave again. She decided yelling would help. She went to a wall she hoped was on the outside of the house and started banging and yelling. "David!" she screamed. She yelled his name over and over again. "Paul! Dwayne! Marko! Anybody! Mom! Dad! Alice! Help! Please!" She heard the door make clicking sounds and it slammed open. "What in God's name are you doing? Jesus! Shut up! No one can hear you but us. We got back like ten minutes ago to hear you bangin' and screamin' like nobody never told you what an indoor voice was! Seriously!" yelled Dolly.

Evelyn was so startled and scared she just ran over to the wooden crates thinking she would break one and use the wood as a weapon. She tried to pick up a box to smash it. "What are you doin' now? Ugh, we've abducted a _crazy person_! You're as crazy as Inky!" yelled Dolly exasperatedly. Evelyn calmed down enough to stop messing with the box and just sit on it. Dolly was standing there with a shirtwaist dress and her hands on her hips and with her southern accent she looked just like a scolding nanny or something. Evelyn let out a sort of _psshht_ sound of laughter and Dolly went away. Before she was about to go out the door she said "Oh, and your boyfriend's lookin' for you. Inky stabbed him in the neck though," and she shut and locked the door.

"What?" said Evelyn. "Is he alright?" No one answered. She wondered if Isabel would come in and finish her story, or finish her off. She was hungry and scared and tired of being cooped up. She started banging on the pipes shouting "Feed the prisoner!" like a little brat when Val finally came down the stairs and said:

"You like Italian?"

Evelyn looked at her. "Yeah," she said.

"Good," said Val and tossed her the bag she was holding. Inside was a to go box of fettuccini alfredo and some plastic silverware and paper napkins.

"Can I have some water, please?" yelled Evelyn. Nothing happened. "Please?" she yelled louder, and after a minute Inky came down with a bottle of water.

"You stabbed David!" said Evelyn.

Inky said nothing, just looked at her and walked away.

Evelyn ate her food and set the trash over with the empty pizza box. She wondered again of Isabel. Later that night, though Evelyn couldn't tell what time it was, Isabel opened the door and came down the stairs. Evelyn watched her every move, wondering if she was going to die. "You wanna know what happened next?" asked Isabel.

"Yes," said Evelyn quietly. Half of her was interested and half of her knew that if she kept her talking she would survive longer.

"So, David had just admitted to my face his relationship with Clementina and that he was a vampire. He also just told me he was leaving. I was furious. There were two reasons that I was furious. The first was that he was leaving me. I felt like his scorned wife. I thought that he was leaving me to go be with the Italian, Clementina. I was furious at him and ashamed of myself. I was in the middle of such a scandal! I would not allow him to do this to me. The second reason I was so angry was that he had the chance to do what I always dreamed about: he was leaving. I always dreamed of leaving. Sometimes in my mind I killed him and left, and sometimes I just went and left him to be on his own and hopefully he would realize his miserable existence. But always, I left him. He could never leave me! That was unacceptable.

"It was at that point that I demanded he make me a vampire. 'Do it,' I said. 'If you're getting out of this place then so am I!' He looked at me strangely. I think he was frightened and… actually I don't know what he was, he's David. He's a mystery. You know that. So I flung myself at him. I tore at his clothing. I called him so many things… I don't even know. I think I kept saying 'You can't do this,' and such. Anyways, I don't know if you know this, but there are two ways of becoming a vampire: the first is by drinking vampire blood and the second is being bitten then drinking vampire blood. It wasn't till later that people figured out that no one has to be bitten, so sires kept biting their fledglings until some guy figured it out, probably by accident too. I just heard it around. I was hanging around the Old South with Val when this guy, this vampire says… wait that's beside the point completely. So, I demanded he make me a vampire and I was saying all these things to try and convince him to do it. Oh, I was so mad! How could he get power and not me! I told him that we could go away together. I told him we could start over. I might have actually believed it, I'm not sure. My brain was sort of turned off in my anger. He doesn't say anything, he just leans over and bites me. I don't know how much he took. Maybe half, maybe three-quarters, maybe all, but I was lying on the floor feeling really faint and he tears open his wrist—he must have—and some blood goes into my mouth and I swallow it. 'It's going to hurt…' he says. 'It will feel a bit… funny at first. Then it hurts,' and he gets up to put a handkerchief on his wound.

"I'm not really sure what happened next. I remember waking up the next night and… and David was packing some things. He looked at me. He didn't smile, but he never really did. 'You're going to half to kill for food now,' he was saying. He was talking about the different between half vampires and whole vampires and I was looking at him and I realized something. I still hated him. Becoming a vampire hadn't changed that. I didn't say anything. He must have known, though, because we could read each other's thoughts. I don't really understand. I ordered the servants to pack our things. We were leaving to seek medical attention away and needed our things packed, that's what I told them. While they were packing David taught me how to fly and we flew to a farm nearby and killed a nearsighted stable buck. I was afraid, at first, but in all my rage towards David I found that I could get used to it, channel my rage towards my victims. I felt much better after that. I had hoped that it would curb my hatred of David, I did, but it didn't. When we returned to the castle I told him. I told him I still hated him and that I was leaving him. It's funny, he's really controlling by nature, but he didn't do anything. I think he tried to say something but I just gave him this look, this real dirty look, and went downstairs. He stayed at the window and watched me step into the carriage. I turned back and looked at him before I stepped in. He was just standing there. I still don't understand.

"Well, the next bit won't be so interesting to you. I went to London, and then decided to shed my old life and that included the Englishness that had been added onto me at birth. I wasn't English, I was a Frenchwoman and I decided I should like to return somewhat to that. I took a boat to New Orleans where I met Val. Later I met Dolly, and after that Inky joined our little family. We bought some bikes, rode cross-country, and had a great time. Now I'm here."

Evelyn looked up. She had suddenly remembered the noise from before, the dragging sound. "What was that noise, earlier? The dragging and thumping sound?"

Isabel laughed. "What do you think it was?"

Evelyn looked away. "Oh," she said. "A body."

Isabel laughed again. "No, actually. Not a body, not even close. It's a fridge. We were using the one here so we got another one from a junk yard."

"But we have a fridge…" said Evelyn, confused.

"For food. This one is for sleeping."

"I thought vampires slept in coffins."

"Do you know how expensive coffins are? Where am I supposed to get one of those? They'll ask you all kinds of questions if you're buying a coffin. They'll probably watch-list me if they find out that a basically homeless girl is buying a coffin for sleeping in. I'd order one off one of those Gothic sites on the internet, but I don't really have a credit card and I'm never at my address in New Orleans."

"Oh," said Evelyn. "Well, points for creativity."

"Well, goodnight. I'll most likely kill you tomorrow," said Isabel and she left, locking the door behind her.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23- Going South

"Jesus," David sputtered, now back at the cave, holding an old shirt to his neck wound. Even though it had basically stopped bleeding, blood still came out his mouth when he talked. "Get me the bottle, would ya?" Paul handed him the jewel encrusted bottle. "She stabbed me. And all for nothing. Anyone else find anything out?" he asked wiping the blood out of his stubbly beard and licking it off his hand.

"Some people saw their bikes. Went south, I think," said Dwayne.

"South," said David. "Good, good. Still in the city?" said David.

"Dunno," said Dwayne.

"Mmm," said David thoughtfully. He nodded, then wished he hadn't as a spurt of blood went into his mouth, nose, and lungs. He coughed and sputtered, trying to get the blood to go where it ought to be: his stomach. He could absorb it there. Luckily, he could also absorb it out of his lungs and wherever else it might be in his body that it ought not to be normally, but it was a pain. He took a drink from the bottle and made some noises.

"You still gonna go out looking tomorrow?" asked Marko.

"Yeah," said David. "South."

The next night David's neck was healed. He picked the knife up off the cave floor and put it into one of the chests lying around the cave.

As they were about to leave Marko asked David "Are you going to feed tonight?"

David looked at him, and realized he would not have fed in three nights if he didn't feed tonight, and that was especially bad since he had just lost quite a bit of blood. "We'll see," he said, and he flew away, getting on his bike. He couldn't risk flying over Santa Carla so early in the night. Anyone looking up could see him.

"He needs to eat something," said Paul, worried. "That bottle last night isn't going to be enough."

The Lost Boys nodded in agreement. It wasn't good for him. They flew after him. "You need to eat something," said Dwayne, stopping David as he was about to leave. David looked up at him, surprised. His boys did not tell him what he needed to do.

"Says who?" he said quietly, warning them.

"No one," said Marko, "It's just… it's not good for you is all."

"Yeah, what if you find her and she's all torn up and bleeding and… and you can't…" Paul tried to tell David that he might be putting Evelyn in danger, but the look in David's eyes stopped his words in his throat.

"I can, and will, do as I please," he said, quietly. When David spoke quietly, that was when you knew it was dangerous.

"Just… we're worried," said Dwayne. "We wouldn't have said anything if… listen, we'll help you look for her. We'll go south with you."

David considered them coolly. Dwayne wondered if he would accept his help. "Alright," he said, and drove off.

David was angry. He was also afraid. He was angry at the Boys but he was also angry at himself. He was angry because he was becoming some sort of romantic and because he was afraid. He had this mental flash in his head when Paul was telling him why he needed to feed of Evelyn in some basement, tied to a support beam and all bitten up. She was bleeding and crying. "Help me, David," she had said in his mind, and all he could do was stare at her blood. When his face changed in his mind as he knew it would if this were to happen, she began to scream. The thought made him want to scream. He hadn't wished he was human in a long time. He liked being a vampire, but if being a vampire meant he had to kill Evelyn, permanently, then he would want to be a human. He wanted to make Evelyn a vampire, but he was afraid she would say no, and then he would have to kill her, and that would be worst of all.

They rode south, through the residential areas and the ghettos. As they got to the edge of Santa Carla they left their bikes in some bushes and flew off, checking houses from above.

Around two in the morning the boys began to get thirsty. They didn't have to say anything; David knew it. "Go," he said. "Feed as you like. There are four faint sounds of blocked minds south of here. I'm going to see, and then we'll stop for tonight. I'll—I'll get something to eat," he said.

The boys knew where to go. There was a couple making out along the roadside near the cliffs. They descended upon them and ripped the doors off the car. They grabbed the man first, biting him and draining him quickly. The woman, frozen in fear, was curled up in the back seat. Paul was the first to get to her. "Please," she said, afraid. "Please," but Paul drained her dry as well along with Marko and Dwayne. They put them back in the car and pushed it over the edge of the cliff, ripping out the railing.

About a mile away, David flew on to the house with four blocked minds. He could sense a fifth mind, but he was too far away to hear it clearly. As he got closer he could tell who it was. It was Evelyn. She was in the basement. David flew faster. How could they have gotten so far away so quickly? How fast had they ridden through the turns of the coastal highway?

He signaled to the boys to hurry on. They met in the fields behind the house. "They're in there," he said. "She's in the basement, but the only way to the basement is through the house."

"How will we get in?" asked Dwayne.

"Any way we can," said David.

"Are we gonna wait for them to leave?" asked Paul.

"No. We don't know what they're gonna do. They might decide to kill her," David answered.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24- Rescue Attempt

NEWS: This is not the end. This is actually the last Chapter I have written so far, which is strange because usually I only post in fives so I can go back and change things. There will be one or two more chapters coming. There will also be a sequel, with more action concerning the Lost Boys as opposed to Evelyn and David. I may spend some time tweaking this story after it's finished as opposed to going straight into the next one. I know how the next one is going to begin, so don't fear for writer's block! Please review when the story is done. My overall impression is that this was all just set-up for the next one, where we will get some real Lost Boys awesomeness. This was all just explaining the addition of the OC. Looking back, I would have done it differently, but hey, it's the way it turned out. Alright, here's your chapter.

It was two in the morning. Evelyn sat alone in the basement. It was her third night there, and no one had tried to kill her. She wondered how long Isabel would say that she was going to kill Evelyn tomorrow. The thought was chilling, but the threat seemed empty. The girls had stayed upstairs tonight. No one had come to see her. She wondered about David. She was so bored.

Not long afterwards she heard a large crash. She looked up, wondered what was happening. She heard some yelling from the girls and some more thumps and crashes. She heard a long, loud cry and thought the voice was David's. "David," she whispered, and crept towards the stairs. She heard one of the girls cry out, and then the door flew open. It was David, standing there in the doorway. Evelyn ran up the stairs and he turned to grab her, but then there was a loud _bang_ and David fell down. Evelyn wasn't sure what had happened until she saw the long smear of misted blood and brain matter that was on the wall next to her. She let out a small sound. She looked up and saw Isabel standing there with some kind of shotgun. Isabel cocked it again, pointed it Evelyn and said "Get down there," and turned and left. David was lying on the stairs with what looked like half his skull blown out. He wasn't moving at all. Evelyn stood at the bottom of the stairs shaking.

Paul appeared at the top of the stairs but Dolly grabbed him, digging her nails into him, and hurled him across the room outside the door. She heard several male voices scream from time to time, but they became less frequent. Val came down once and dragged David's body up the stairs and threw it somewhere. _Thump._ "Take that away!" she yelled. Evelyn did nothing, just touched the blood on the wall, unbelieving.

Something was being pushed upstairs. "Move," said Isabel, who was moving a large storage refrigerator through the doorway and down the stairs. Evelyn scurried to her mattress, still in a daze. David was dead and for sure she was too was all that was running through her mind.

She leaned up against the column, and only realized what was going on when Dolly started wrapping cold, metal chains around her. She struggled. She felt she knew what was coming next. "It's dawn," said Isabel, "and the door is gone." Dolly locked the Master Lock around the two ends of the chains after wrapping them around Evelyn's struggling body several times. "You're staying here. I'll most likely kill you tomorrow, or find something _else_ to do with you." Evelyn was afraid. She began to cry. David was dead and it was all her fault, and now she was going to die too, or worse. Isabel looked at her, and for a moment she looked sympathetic.

"He's dead," said Evelyn. Isabel smiled. "How dare you smile? How dare you smile! You killed him! You—!" and she resumed sobbing. "Why are you doing this?" she yelled. Isabel walked forward impossibly quickly and grabbed Evelyn by the throat. She looked at her angrily, and her nails dug into Evelyn, her thump cutting a line behind her ear. Evelyn made a noise of pain, and Isabel let her go roughly.

What Evelyn had forgotten was that David was a vampire, and that even a bullet through the head can't kill a vampire. She didn't know that after Paul's throat had been cut, Dwayne's stomach gutted, and both Marko's legs and one of his arms had been shattered they had used all of their remaining strength to fly him to Max's house, which was closer than the cave.

"It was her?" he asked when they brought David to him.

"Isabel… and her gang… they…" Marko grunted.

"Shush," said Max, putting a finger to Marko's lips. "Sit down." Marko collapsed onto the floor along with the other boys. Max took his own bottle out from a cabinet deep inside the house and poured some of it down David's throat and some of it directly onto his smashed head.

Dwayne, whose stomach was split open, made some noises, but managed to get out the word "conscious?"

"His brain is destroyed, so is his body conscious? Can he feel? No. Is his soul conscious? Can he feel with his vampire mind? Yes. To a point, he still knows what's happening," said Max. "Now, what he needs is a day's sleep. You all do." Max got some bandages and put Dwayne's stomach back together, pushing the intestines back inside. He taped up Paul's neck to make sure his head didn't flop around to much, as of now his head was almost at a ninety degree angle to his body. He set the largest pieces of Marko's bones back together, and made a make-shift splint. For the seemingly mortal wounds, this was all that was necessary. "Sleep," he told them. They were safe in his attic.

Miles away all four girls were climbing into the large fridge in the basement, while Evelyn sobbed. As the sun rose they all fell asleep. They were planning on moving locations tomorrow, and no one knew what was going to happen to the girl.

Evelyn cried and cried until she was just sobbing because she had no tears left. 'Did I tell him I loved him?' she wondered. 'I hope he didn't think I ran away. I would have stayed… if he asked me to be a vampire with him I would have—" she thought, then paused. Vampire? She had forgotten some things. Seeing David lying out there with his brains blown out—she could still see them on the wall—had just instantly registered with her as him being dead, but did that mean he was dead? She didn't know. Who had Val told to take him away? What happened to the boys? Evelyn suddenly decided to do some research, and by research she meant getting out of here and seeing where the boys were and how they were doing.

She had remembered reading this thing on Houdini in school about how he would escape and she knew that some of the loops of the chains holding her were tighter than others, and if she pulled in the right way they would all become of equal tightness. The tightness they would become would be looser than they were now, and she could possibly wiggle free. She squirmed and squirmed. Finally, the chains seemed looser. She tried to stand up, scooting the chains up the pole. She wiggled her shoulders out, and then her elbows, and then she pulled her arms out. After that the rest of the chains fell off. She stepped away and looked at the fridge. She also knew how to crack older versions of Master Locks, which was what was on the ground beside her. She twirled the dial slowly, pulling on the loop, waiting to feel that thing catch. She kept going until she had the first number, then the second, and finally the third. She took the chains and went over to the fridge.

As she was looking at it she thought of something. She went upstairs and looked for some paper and a pen. She scribbled a note that said:

Dear Isabel

I'm getting out of here. I don't know what you're going to do with me or if your threats are empty, but I'm not waiting around to find out. I don't know what you want with me. Maybe you're just a crazy person. I kind of understand, when I think about your story, but I still don't know why. There could be a lot of reasons. But the point is none of those reasons include me anymore. If you want to work something out you can talk to David and me, not shoot him in the head and lock me in a basement. I'm not actually as mad as I thought I would be. Crimes of passion, I guess.

I could have staked you today, while you slept. I could have killed you all. I could break one of those boxes and get plenty of that wood. To prove it I'm going to tape this note to a stake from one of those boxes I'm about to smash. I'm not going to kill you, though. I'm going to ask you to go away. You had your chance, and you screwed up in 1853 and you've screwed up your little revenge plan now. I don't think you know what you want to do with me.

So I'm not going to kill you. I am going to lock you in this box, though.

-Evelyn

P.S.- You're not bad, you're just confused.

She smashed one of the boxes and got some tape from the kitchen upstairs that had been laying out on the counter. She laid them both in the fridge where all the girls slept and shut it. They didn't move. She took the chains and looped them through the space between the feet of the refrigerator and the floor. She wrapped the chains around and put them through the handles. She got the lock and snapped it shut.

Evelyn walked out of the house. She had remembered coming from the right when they had arrived, so she walked up the road towards what she hoped was Santa Carla. She reached up and rubbed the spot where Isabel had cut her behind her ear. It was deep, but the blood was dry.

What had taken the girls about forty-five minutes going a hundred miles an hour on motorbikes was taking Evelyn the better part of the day. She had mixed feelings when she saw the sun going down, afraid that the chains wouldn't hold, and hoping that the boys (if they were okay) would come and give her a lift. Her legs hurt so much, but she wanted to put as much distance between her and the vampire women as she could.

Just as the sun set David shook awake. He had a killer headache and as he rubbed his skull, sitting up, it felt soft beneath the skin, which had the texture of scar tissue covered with stubble where the bullet had torn fragments of his skull away. "Ah!" he said in a gravelly voice. Max, who was an early riser for a vampire, came in.

"You're skull is healing nicely. It will be cartilage at first, and then it will harden to bone. It should be normal by tomorrow night. That was rather nasty scrape you got yourselves into, David. I'm concerned—" Max said.

"I'm going back," said David.

"David, you do not interrupt me when I'm speaking to you. I was going to say I was concerned that you failed to inform me of any of this, but now I'm even more concerned. David, you are not going back. You can't—" Max said.

"I'm sorry, Max, but I have to. After last night… they'll surely kill her." The Lost Boys were standing up, pulling off their bandages, completely healed.

"Thanks for your help!" said Marko.

"Boys!" said David, as they walked out. "Boys! _Boys!_ You get back here this instant!" but they were already gone. Max took off his glasses and sighed.

The Lost Boys flew over the ocean and straight towards the house. They flew along the costal highway when they passed over someone. David caught a hint of her scent. He looked behind him and there she was, looking up at them, walking along the highway. David landed on the railing and Evelyn had a look of shock. She had never seen him fly before. She stepped out onto the road and started across the highway. At that moment a car came careening around the bend, straight at Evelyn. She turned and looked at it, her eyes widening. She put up her arms as if that would shield her somehow. Just as the car was a foot away from her she closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact. She felt something moving quickly run into her and she opened her mouth to scream, but all that came out was a strangled cry of surprise. The thing that had run into her hadn't run over her or increased its pressure, as she thought a speeding car running over your body would, but moved again, impossibly fast, pulling her low to the ground. She opened her eyes in time to see David's hand stretching out towards the bumper of the speeding truck. The truck ran into the hand, but instead of crushing it and the arm, the truck's grill bent inward and David's elbow bent, causing the truck to slow down. The truck then hit David full in the back, but instead of splitting him in two as it should have, it made a crunching sound and rolled, back over front, over him, landing on its top on the other side sliding across the pavement. Then Evelyn yelled. That was all impossible. She looked at David, patting him with her hands as if he might come apart any moment from the impact. He only looked at her, seemingly unaware that he had just been hit by a truck.

A hand reached out of the window of the truck. The man inside was still alive, but barely. David hadn't fed on human blood in days. The last inch of his mind before he completely vamped out told him he had two options. There was food in his hands and there was food over there. Perhaps that last little inch of David without his vampire instincts told him that he should not bite Evelyn, or maybe his instincts told him to go after the wounded one, but whatever the case, David dropped Evelyn and moved over very quickly to the truck. He was so hungry, he wasn't even thinking anymore. He stuck his head through the window and pulled the man out. The man looked up at him before David sunk his teeth into the man's neck and drank furiously. Evelyn screeched. David pulled away, pushing the man away from himself. The force with which he pushed made the truck go careening over the side of the highway, balancing on the edge of the cliff, about to fall. He sighed a sound of satisfaction, feeling the blood still sticking in his throat. He felt much better now.

Paul tried to pull Evelyn away, to turn her head, but she only made another sound. In the last sixty second she had witnessed her boyfriend descend from the sky, be hit by a truck and remain unhurt, and drain the blood of a man. She knew he was a vampire, as in he had told her he was a vampire, but now she _really knew_ he was a vampire.

David looked at Evelyn and she made another sound of fear. His eyes were shining and burning bright. Nothing good had red eyes that glowed in the night. Nothing good had that demonic angular face. Nothing good had long, sharp fangs that dripped blood, and nothing good had begun to walk towards her.

David stopped, moving his hands to cover the lower half of his face. He didn't want to scare her. Who knows what traumatic state she was in? She saw his hands in the bright light of the headlights. She saw the long claws and somehow his hands looked bonier. She made another small whimpering sound. When a vampire morphed, it had to wait it out until its body stopped the process.

The truck tipped over the edge and fell into the ocean below. Now all Evelyn could see were David's glowing red eyes.

"It's okay," one of the boys whispered to her. She didn't know who, she was too distracted by what had been David standing in the middle of the road.

"Evelyn," said David, but his voice was different. It had deeper more gravelly tones. It sounded like the devil, and Evelyn didn't even believe in the devil. David closed his eyes. "Please," he said.

He walked foreword and when Evelyn saw him under the streetlight his eyes were blue, and his face was his face again. He stood in front of her and held out his arms, as if he expected her to go to him, or maybe he was about to pick her up.

Another car came. David moved so quickly Evelyn didn't really know what was going on until she was sitting in the on the hill above the road, higher up on the cliff. David had picked her up and flown her up there. The boys were suddenly standing nearby. Evelyn had to resist the urge to scream. David put his hand over her mouth until the car passed.

"You… killed… that man," said Evelyn shakily.

David said nothing.

"You did!" said Evelyn accusingly.

"I did," said David.

Evelyn made a small sound starting with 'wh'. It could have been 'what' or 'why', but it died in her throat.

"If I didn't I'd be dead. If I didn't kill people like him then I wouldn't be able to do things like save you," said David.

"She shot you in the head," said Evelyn, still in shock.

"She did. I'm back, though," David said. David picked her up and flew her back to the cave.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25- Favorite

Evelyn slept all day. She was so happy to be back in the bed and away from those vampires, those devil women. Devil women. She realized as she thought those two words that they weren't really devil women. Or they were, but the fact was they weren't any worse than The Lost Boys. They were sort of they're female counterparts in a way. If there ever were The Lost Girls, Iz, Val, Dolly, and Inky where them. She guessed that the way she had first saw them, so frightening and mysterious, was the way that the rest of the world saw David, Dwayne, Marko, and Paul. No one really knew them. They breezed by at their luxury, taking what they pleased. David wasn't very friendly, to outsiders that is. To the boys, he was their leader and their greatest friend. The boys and she were really all that mattered, though Evelyn was his special favorite. Her vote always counted double.

She had nightmares. She was trapped in a labyrinth of basements underground, trying to find the rest of David's head. She was carrying his brain around, but it kept falling apart, and she wouldn't stop bleeding from cuts on her head she couldn't find. Between trying to hold the brain and stop the bleeding, she got bits of brain all in her hair and it was really gross and she was afraid she would bleed to death. Little pixies kept passing her in the underground halls saying softly "Oh, his brain. He's a bad boy, isn't he?" matter-of-factly. For some reason she kept asking them "Where did all the flowers go?" She could never understand their answers.

When she woke up David was still asleep. All the boys had collapsed in the corner where she and David slept amongst the extra pillows and blankets. All of them were sleeping deeply and from their recent injuries she figured they needed their sleep. She went up to Hudson's Bluff to watch the ocean and the lighthouse. She leaned up against the hood of her car, a black Camaro.

"I wouldn't lean there," said a voice from behind her.

Evelyn jumped because she knew who it was. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I was going to push your car off the cliff," said Isabel plainly.

Evelyn turned around to face Isabel, staying in front of her car. "Well don't," she said.

"I figured it was stupid," said Isabel.

"Yeah," said Evelyn. "What do you want then?"

"They're still asleep, aren't they?" asked Isabel.

Evelyn paused, wondering if Isabel knew that they were she would try and hurt Isabel.

"Aw, let 'em sleep then. They need it. We tore them apart. They must not feel very manly," said Isabel.

"You shot him in the head," said Evelyn. Now her tone was as flat and plain as Isabel's.

Isabel nodded. "I did."

"Why?"

"I wanted to. He needed it."

"Why any of it?"

"Honestly? It's been drivin' me crazy. I miss him. Vampire emotions don't fade over time, especially since he made me. It's been drivin' me mad. Closure, I guess." Evelyn only blinked at Isabel's answer. "I guess I should have… thought it through? I didn't really have a plan. I'm not used to it, you see, I haven't made plans since I came here and met Val. I felt like my whole life was planned out and I was trapped—" said Isabel.

"I already heard it," said Evelyn. She was honestly tired of hearing Isabel talk. She'd just talk and talk and never answer your questions.

Isabel looked up at her sharply, her eyes narrowing.

"What about now? Why are you here?" asked Evelyn. She just wanted straight answers.

"We're leaving," said Isabel, and Evelyn thought she sounded sad. "We're moving on. We'll go up the coast. Go through Seattle, maybe into Canada." The other three young women came out from the bushes, wheeling their bikes. "We're leaving the bikes behind. We thought that… maybe the boys would like them? They can take 'em apart and use the parts. We're taking a car up north." The four vampires wheeled their bikes toward Evelyn and put down the kickstands. "So this is it," said Isabel, but she seemed to be waiting for something. She kept glancing down at the cave.

"Please don't let them take mine apart," whispered Inky. "I like it. We'll probably be back in the area sometime in this century. I'll pick mine up. Maybe I'll see you around?"

"Wait David!" yelled Isabel from behind Inky. Evelyn hadn't even seen him coming, but there he was, skidding to a stop right before Isabel. He waited, silently commanding her to speak. "I just came to leave the bikes. You can do whatever. Goodbye, David," she said and started to turn. She took one step away and then paused. Evelyn realized she had been waiting for him. She wanted to see him again. Isabel was just moving her foot over the rocks very slowly like she was walking in slow motion and her arms were arranged in a strange position. Evelyn realized she looked nervous. Then she whirled around, put her hands squarely on his shoulders, and kissed David right on the mouth. David made a noise of surprise and after a moment stepped back, freeing himself from her grip. Isabel was smiling like a loon. "You're choosing her then?"

"You shot me in the head," was all David said.

Isabel sighed and rolled her eyes. "And what if I _hadn't_ shot you, then who would you have chosen?"

David looked away. "You still ask these questions—" David started to say.

"What questions!" asked Isabel in surprise. He acted like he knew her.

"—questions where you ask them and you don't want the answers! Or you only want a certain answer and you just want to—" David said.

"Oh, piss on a stick, David, answer my question."

David leaned in close and said very quietly, "I would have chosen her, alright? I would have chosen Evelyn. If you cry I swear I will—"

"I'm not going to cry," said Isabel, mocking David's quiet tone. "Why are you talking so quietly? You've got to tell her! You've also got to tell her about Max's little ultimatum," David blanched. "Ah, yes! I do know everything. Ah, yes… but seriously. Tell her. She's going to be curious. You screwed up this relationship, don't screw up you and Evelyn's—"

"_I _screwed up?" asked David.

"Oh, whatever! He likes you more than me!" she yelled at Evelyn. "Goodbye!" and Isabel turned around and disappeared, along with the other young-looking women.

Evelyn stood near her car, watching David and Evelyn's conversation amazedly. David was wound up tight, which was weird because David never got wound up about anything. He just _did_ whatever and there were never any problems because he didn't care about them. She was also surprised to see Isabel acting so—what was the word—normal? Nice? Average? Is there a difference between normal and average?

"Oh, piss on a stick, David, answer my question."

She couldn't hear what David said next. It made her heart drop into her stomach, which had become a butterfly house crossed with a cement mixer, cement included. 'What if he was saying "You, Isabel my darling," and he really did like Isabel more than her because Isabel is really pretty even with her freaky hair which is kind of cool in a tough way and if she grew it out she'd be like supermodel gorgeous and way prettier than me… would she? Who's prettier? Who's more interesting? Who does David like more and why?' she thought wildly.

"…you've got to tell her!" she heard Isabel say. 'Tell me what? That he's breaking up with me?' she thought. "He likes you more than me!" Isabel yelled at Evelyn. Evelyn couldn't help but smile. She watched Isabel disappear. David looked a bit befuddled, which made Evelyn smile even more. She kind of respected Isabel for having the power to make David look befuddled.

Evelyn walked over to him and stood right in front of him. "So you like me more than her, huh?" she asked him.

David smiled that mysterious smile at her and kissed her roughly on the mouth. "You're my favorite," he said quietly.

Though the closest thing to The Lost Girls Santa Carla would ever see were gone, not all problems were resolved. There still loomed the issue of Max's orders to kill or turn Evelyn in a matter of weeks, which by Max's standards was being very generous. David was feeling a slow sense of bitterness towards Max, more than usual, for making him do something, especially regarding his special favorite. The best scenario was that Evelyn would be turned into a vampire, and after that would she accept what she was? Would she try and remain between the two worlds, refusing to take a human life? David really had four options here: he would ask her if she would be a vampire and she would say yes and he would turn her, he would ask her and she would say no or try and run and he would kill her, he could trick her into becoming a half vampire and let her decide from there, or he could just save himself the trouble and kill her. He held her hand tighter as they walked down the stairs, he considering those choices.

The End

But wait! It's not really the end! Well, it is (to this installment at least, I am writing a sequel), but not really. I feel like the plot is a bit… jumpy? I don't know, but I am motivated to add some extra scenes to the story and am tweaking others. All put a notice in all the chapter titles on the ones I changed for those of you who've been with me for a while and want to go back and read the extra scenes.

The plot will be continued in the next installment of what will now be a series! Yes, yes, I'm writing a sequel! And maybe another one after that! So, this is what the next one is going to be about: the main conflict is, of course, David's decision about what to do. However, we are finally branching out and exploring other boys' personalities, and the best way I could think for me to do that would be to give them an OC to play with. Her name is Cathy and there aren't any Big Decisions about what to do with her (turn her or kill her) because she's already a vampire! But she's not living it up like the boys. Here is an excerpt from the second chapter (which is one of the few parts from her point of view. I don't do first person much). I chose it because I've already given a lot of the plot away and am not giving away any more!:

Chapter 2- Cathy The Uncool Vampire.

I always thought that vampires were supposed to be cool. 'Cause in like the movies and books they're either some freaky bald guy like in Nosferatu or some sexy fiend like in Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned.

But I'm here to tell ya, I'm a vampire and I'm not cool. Here are three examples of my uncoolness:

1) My name is Cathy. It's not special or sexy or scary like _Lestat de Lioncourt_ or _Dracula_ or even Mina Murray (or Harker) or Lucy Westenra. Those are all famous vampires. I guess my real name, Catherine, is more vampire-y, but my grandma's name is Catherine, and she smells funny.

2) I work at McDonalds. I wear an ugly polo shirt and a tacky visor and have uttered the words "Do you want fries with that?"

3) I don't even have real fangs. Well, I do, but they aren't there all the time. In the movies, the fangs are kind of small and hidden so you might think you see something, but are too afraid to look closer. I don't have fangs like that. Basically, when I'm hungry or angry or emotional my face gets ugly and I get fangs the size of two nuclear warheads. Not sexy, just ugly and scary. I get red-orange eyes, though. I guess that's kind of cool.

I wonder if other vampires are as uncool as me. After I was turned, I rented a bunch of movies and read a bunch of books about vampires. I really didn't know what was going on and it was the only thing I could think of to do. No Dr. Van Helsing to come down and diagnose me. But I've never met another vampire. Except once, and I'm not even sure he _was_ the vampire.

Okay, so a couple months ago I was at this party on the beach and this guy asks me if I want a drink and I say yes because I did. When I was halfway done with the drink I realized I probably shouldn't be taking drinks from strange boys, but the guy didn't even follow me after, he was just sort of around. I guess there was vampire blood in that drink. That's as best as I can figure. I wasn't bitten, and that was the only thing I drank.

I asked around about the guy later. He was some sort of drifter who came into town from LA, but no one had seen him since another party a couple of nights after the one I went to. Most people assumed he drifted on out again, but he left what people thought was his car, so who knows. Maybe that car was stolen and he just stole another one. Maybe he turned into a bat and flew (I haven't figured out how to do that yet. Turn into a bat, I mean. I've woken up on my ceiling loads of times ).

I thought vampires looked like Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt! At least like Stuart Townsend or Gary Oldman! The Drink Guy wasn't even hot! And what about Kate Beckinsale? Shouldn't I look like her?

Where's the romance? Where's the drama? Pssht, you're tellin' me!


End file.
